Drawing on a lifetime of diplomatic experience and historical study, Kissinger investigates the great “tectonic plates” of global history and state relations. He identifies four major world orders that have shaped international affairs: the European (Westphalian), Islamic, Chinese, and American systems. Each, he argues, has developed its own concept of justice and power, from Europe’s balance-of-power politics after the Peace of Westphalia, to China’s long-standing vision of a central imperium, to the religious universalism of political Islam, and the democratic idealism of the United States.

Kissinger analyzes how these worldviews evolved, collided, and continue to influence the dynamics of international relations today. He offers detailed portraits of historical figures and episodes, from the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War to the Nixon administration’s negotiations with Hanoi, the end of the Cold War, and the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and Asia.

The book weaves together sweeping historical analysis with firsthand insights into modern diplomacy, examining how the lack of a shared global order has led to recurring conflict and instability.

Kissinger’s writing is both panoramic and precise, zooming out to capture the broad patterns of history and then focusing in on the personalities and decisions that have shaped the world stage. He contends that true world order has never fully existed; instead, civilizations have repeatedly tried—and often failed—to impose their own frameworks on a diverse and divided globe. The result, he warns, is a contemporary international system marked by uncertainty, technological upheaval, and ideological extremism.