A critical showdown is looming with Russia and China, but public confidence and belief in democratic politicians and institutions are waning
Promoting his latest book last week, 99-year-old Henry Kissinger, the controversial former doyen of US foreign policymaking, bemoaned the low calibre of present-day political leadership. That’s a bit stiff, coming from a man who was close to Richard Nixon, the only US president ever to resign in disgrace.
Yet Kissinger’s rose-tinted praise for “strong” postwar leaders – Margaret Thatcher, France’s Charles de Gaulle and West Germany’s Konrad Adenauer are among his all-time greats – does not mean he’s wrong now. With notable exceptions, the west’s current crop of presidents and prime ministers is weak, uninspiring and untrustworthy.