Henry Kissinger has served as National Security Adviser and as Secretary of State and has received the Nobel Peace prize. Also, a former professor at Harvard. 

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (Penguin Press, 2022)
In this book Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft. 

Session 1. Introduction: The Axes of Leadership 
Session 2. Konrad Adenauer
Session 3. Charles de Gaulle
Session 4. Richard Nixon
Session 5. Anwar Sadat
Session 6. Lee Kuan Yew
Session 7. Margaret Thatcher 
Session 8. Conclusion: Leadership and World Order 



Choice B: Timothy Garton Ash, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe (Yale University Press, 2023)

We will read, analyze, and discuss the history of modern Europe based on the book by Timothy G. Ash, the acclaimed "historian of the present" and a professor at the University of Oxford.

What is modern European history? What are the main themes that have characterized postwar Europe? Why did communist regimes collapse so easily in Eastern Europe in 1989? What problems has Europe faced since the fall of Communism?   How is it distinct from global or international history? How has Europe been transformed in the timeframes of post-war and post-wall? What should define the limits of EU enlargement? We will consider these questions (and more!) by reading a recent nonfiction book from well known history professor Timothy G. Ash that deal with post-World War II European history, peoples, ideas, and institutions. Students will explore the complicated history of modern Europe. Furthermore, students will participate in discussions, oral and written reviews of the reading, and a final piece of debate that brings together the themes of the class and the book as a whole and allows students to reflect on how European national and transnational history might inform their own understanding of the world in the 21st century. 

About the author: Timothy Garton Ash is a professor of European studies at the University of Oxford and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is one of the most brilliant historians of our time. Just recently his essay based on this book was published in the prestigious Foreign Affairs magazine. 

Session 1. Introduction to the postwar continent of Europe (Reading I: Prologue and pp. 3-24)
Session 2. Destroyed 1945 (Reading II: pp. 27-82)
Session 3. Rising 1980-1989, part 1 (Reading III: pp. 85-120)
Session 4. Rising 1980-1989, part 2 (Reading IV: pp. 121-149)
Session 5. Triumphing 1990-2007, part 1 (Reading V: pp. 153-194)
Session 6. Triumphing 1990-2007, part 2 (Reading VI: pp. 195-241)
Session 7. Faltering 2008-2022, part 1 (Reading VII: pp. 245-278)
Session 8. Faltering 2008-2022, part 2 (Reading VIII: pp. 279-307)
Session 9. Faltering 2008-2022, part 3 and Epilogue (Reading IX: pp. 308-348)
Session 10. Conclusion about the Postimperial Empire-Europe and how Europe is transforming at the present.