2024 Niall Ferguson with Evan Osnos – “What Would Kissinger Do?”

No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized, most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile, and East Timor. Renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to journalist EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and, casting a hard eye at current crises around the world, considers what Kissinger might have made of our current foreign policy landscape.