India, Nov. 14 -- When Henry Kissinger published Diplomacy in 1994, the Cold War had ended and the US appeared to have emerged as the uncontested global power. There was considerable optimism that liberal democracy, international institutions and a rules-based international order would define the future. Kissinger was less persuaded.

Drawing on centuries of European statecraft, he argued that international stability depended not on the triumph of a particular ideology, but on the careful management of competing national interests. Diplomacy required reconciling power with legitimacy and preventing any one State from acquiring unchecked dominance over others.

Three decades later, his arguments deserve renewed attention.

Kissinger contra...