Kissinger wants alternative to NATO

We must go beyond NATO to political structures, according to Dr Henry Kissinger.

We must go beyond NATO to political structures, according to Dr Henry Kissinger.

The former US secretary of state told an invited audience at the sixth Independent lecture in Trinity College Dublin last night that greater cohesion in the north Atlantic was of the utmost importance. This would be appropriate for the 21st century.

However, he cautioned against the US seeking to make the whole world in its image. "This is beyond our emotional, physical and intellectual resources," he said.

"When we try to tell the Chinese how to manage their affairs we tend to forget that they had 14 dynasties, 10 of which had individual histories longer than the history of the United States. The Chinese may think they managed to stagger through 4,800 years of their 5,000-year history without specific advice from the US.

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"Therefore they may have known something relevant to their survival all on their own."

Globalisation may not be the answer it is often thought to be, he said. It was, at best, only partially true that the global economic system works to the benefit of everybody who follows the rules of the game.

The pressures of globalisation drive people in developing countries into the cities, destroying family and cultural support systems and widening the gap between rich and poor.

"The challenge is whether the political system can stand the cost of development. So far, the evidence on this subject is ambiguous," he said.

Solutions to the problem of world order needed to be found which involved some reconciliation between the principles of sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, between the market and what was socially and politically bearable, between equity and speculative investment, and a means of dealing with crises that mitigates austerity.