Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-403) and index.

Introduction: the question of world order -- Europe: the pluralistic international order -- The European balance-of-power system and its end -- Islamism and the Middle East: a world in disorder -- The United States and Iran: approaches to order -- The multiplicity of Asia -- Toward an Asian order: confrontation or partnership? -- "Acting for all mankind": the United States and its concept of order -- The United States: ambivalent superpower -- Technology, equilibrium, and human -- Conclusion: World order in our time.

Kissinger offers his analysis of the twenty first century's ultimate challenge: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historic perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism.