New York, Washington It is November 16th and in the dining room of the elegant New York Metropolitan Club, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is accepting the Henry Kissinger Prize. Steinmeier and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sit on the stage of the room, which is decorated with golden stucco and red velvet curtains.
But the audience’s gaze is directed to the large screen in the corner, which is broadcasting Henry Kissinger’s eulogy in person. Since the 99-year-old was still recovering from a Covid infection at the time, the doctor advised him against meeting so many people.
The former national security adviser and Harvard professor’s voice is cracked, his body hunched as he speaks in front of his bookshelf. But the thoughts are clear and also reflect the story of the man who was born into a Jewish family in Fürth in central Franconia in 1923 and who later influenced US foreign policy like no other.
After the words of praise for Steinmeier, Kissinger condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine in his speech. But he also expresses the hope that Russia will again become part of the international community in the future. “Even after the Second World War, no one thought it possible that the aggressor Germany would develop into such a reliable ally,” warns the former security adviser, after whom the award from the American Academy in Berlin is named.
On May 27 Kissinger will be 100 years old. His life is shaped by the great threats facing the world, beginning with his family’s escape from the Holocaust when he was 15 years old. But shortly before his 100th birthday, he is primarily concerned with the dangers of modernity. Not only the war in Ukraine, but also the development of artificial intelligence.
Kissinger advises approaching China when it comes to AI
He was “obsessed” with the topic of artificial intelligence, he says just a week after the award ceremony for Steinmeier at the “Men, Machine, God” forum in Washington’s National Cathedral. Sitting on the podium are former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Anne Neuberger, Assistant National Security Advisor at the White House. The question of how to limit the “potentially destructive capabilities of artificial intelligence” keeps him up at night, says Kissinger.
Kissinger has advised almost every US president on foreign policy over the past 50 years, sometimes more, sometimes less formally.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
Together with Schmidt and computer science professor Daniel Huttenlocher, Kissinger published the book “The AI Age – and Our Human Future” in 2021. Long before ChatGPT.
New arms control agreements must make AI regulation a top priority, says the former US Secretary of State. If world powers don’t find ways and means to contain AI, technological progress is “simply a mad race leading to catastrophe”.
Kissinger then calls on US President Joe Biden to approach China. “There is no way one side can win the AI race. Therefore, both sides should commit to not waging a high-tech war against each other.”
Even if Biden’s government takes a different path and wants to detach the United States from China technologically, Kissinger’s influence in Washington is still noticeable. As Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
>>Read here: Between rapprochement and deterrence: The USA’s contradictory course on China
There he not only prepared the first rapprochement between the USA and China with a secret China visit in 1971. He also played a key role in the Vietnam War – which is still highly controversial today.
In 1973 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for a ceasefire and withdrawal agreement with North Vietnam, but hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the course of the American carpet bombing of Cambodia. He also accompanied the controversial policy of the USA in Argentina and Chile as an advisor.
His advice was accepted by Republicans and Democrats
Kissinger redefined the role of the national security adviser: since the Nixon administration, US national security interests have been controlled centrally from the White House. That’s how it is to this day. Kissinger has advised almost every US president on foreign policy over the past 50 years, sometimes more, sometimes less formally.
Despite his advanced age, Kissinger regularly speaks out and also appears at events in Washington every few months.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
With his often week-long journeys between the capitals of the world, he coined the term “shuttle diplomacy”. He has met Barack Obama and Donald Trump several times, and Joe Biden has not yet made an official visit to the White House.
Despite his advanced age, Kissinger regularly speaks out and also appears at events in Washington every few months. During a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank last fall, he also mentioned Germany.
Western nations would lose the compass, he suggested, because of a “sense of insecurity.” Countries like Germany “have gone through so much upheaval in a very short space of time,” Kissinger said, and are therefore more concerned with self-government.
Criticism for statements in Davos
In a Bloomberg interview a few months ago, he criticized the achievements of today’s European leaders, from France’s Emmanuel Macron to Germany’s Olaf Scholz.
On May 27 Kissinger will be 100 years old.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
It saddens him that the current European leadership “does not have the sense of direction and mission” that previous heads of state like Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle brought to their roles.
Kissinger was criticized last year for statements made at the World Economic Forum in Davos. At the time, he is said to have suggested that peace between Ukraine and Russia would require Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He later made it clear that his main concern was that peace negotiations had to take place as soon as possible.
>>Read here: Steinmeier warns of China’s new course in unusually sharp words
He still has hope for peace negotiations in the Ukraine war and is also counting on China. “Now that China has entered the negotiations,” he said in an interview with CBS television on the occasion of his 100th birthday, “at the end of the year,” there could be peace negotiations.
More: Follow all current developments relating to artificial intelligence in the news blog