Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event is rescheduled for Thursday, July 28 at 7:00 pm. All tickets purchased for the original date of July 14 will be honored on the new date. With questions, please contact us.

At this in-person event (with a virtual attendance option), masks and proof of vaccination are required. Please review our health and safety protocols here.

In Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, Henry Kissinger—former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford examines six twentieth-century leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy.

Kissinger writes that “Leadership is most essential during periods of transition, when values and institutions are losing their relevance, and the outlines of a worthy future are in controversy,” and each figure profiled in the book inherited a world marked by changes. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls “the strategy of humility.” Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by “the strategy of will.” During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the U.S. by “the strategy of equilibrium.” After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a “strategy of transcendence.” Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by “the strategy of excellence.” And, though Britain was known as “the sick man of Europe” when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country’s morale and international position by “the strategy of conviction.”

Leadership is enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make—he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes—and concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability of leadership today.

In conversation with Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and anchor of Andrea Mitchell Reports.