Now 100, Kissinger has profited for four decades as
a global consultant by telling clients, sponsors and the establishment what
they want to hear.
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023/05/henry-kissinger-centenary-triumph-businessman-diplomat
It should come as no surprise that powerful US corporations, with the intense local knowledge that this ageing resident of New York’s Upper West Side lacks, have sought him out. Why boards hire an “expert” such as Kissinger to come and deliver undergraduate commentary about the Chinese “thinking in centuries” or about Vladimir Putin being a “character out of Dostoevsky” often has nothing to do with his insight. An outside expert is usually hired not to inform but to bless a decision or to help a partner win an argument. In the case of Kissinger, this has usually been related to business investment in China and occasionally in Russia. Meanwhile, across the world, powerful interests have sought him out to explain Washington.
Despite Kissinger’s foresight often being comically wrong, such as his projection of a positive future for Russian-American relations weeks before the 2008 Russo-Georgian War or his misidentification of China’s authoritarian turn under Xi Jinping, clients have sought him out regardless. That his interviews mostly read like auto-generated prompts is in fact the strategy. The less you say the lower the risk of damaging the brand.
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023/05/henry-kissinger-centenary-triumph-businessman-diplomat
It should come as no surprise that powerful US corporations, with the intense local knowledge that this ageing resident of New York’s Upper West Side lacks, have sought him out. Why boards hire an “expert” such as Kissinger to come and deliver undergraduate commentary about the Chinese “thinking in centuries” or about Vladimir Putin being a “character out of Dostoevsky” often has nothing to do with his insight. An outside expert is usually hired not to inform but to bless a decision or to help a partner win an argument. In the case of Kissinger, this has usually been related to business investment in China and occasionally in Russia. Meanwhile, across the world, powerful interests have sought him out to explain Washington.
Despite Kissinger’s foresight often being comically wrong, such as his projection of a positive future for Russian-American relations weeks before the 2008 Russo-Georgian War or his misidentification of China’s authoritarian turn under Xi Jinping, clients have sought him out regardless. That his interviews mostly read like auto-generated prompts is in fact the strategy. The less you say the lower the risk of damaging the brand.
Related:
As Henry Kissinger turns 100, think of those who
never had the chance
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3222097/henry-kissinger-turns-100-think-those-who-never-had-chance
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3222097/henry-kissinger-turns-100-think-those-who-never-had-chance
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-one-man-laid-the-groundwork-for-todays-crisis-in-the-middle-east/
Henry Kissinger's genocidal legacy: Vietnam, Cambodia and the birth of American militarism
https://www.salon.com/2015/11/10/henry_kissingers_genocidal_legacy_partner/
Indefensible Kissinger: As more details come to light, the darker his deeds seem.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/indefensible-kissinger-102123/
Unholy Alliances: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Bangladesh genocide.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/23/unholy-alliances-3