The book titled "World Order" is the essence of Kissinger's thoughts on history, strategy, and political management of states. It is as if the author observes our planet from somewhere high up, recording the titanic movements of the tectonic plates of history and the motivations of nations, interpreting the stance that states and empires have taken towards the rest of the world from the shaping of Europe to our era.
Kissinger identifies four basic versions of "world order" in history: European, Islamic, Chinese, and American. From the end of Charlemagne's empire, and especially after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Europeans sought to achieve a balance in international relations, initially within the boundaries of their own continent and later on a global scale. Islamic states focused their attention on expanding into areas inhabited by infidels, a stance that is characteristically expressed in our era by Iran under the leadership of the Ayatollahs. For more than two thousand years, the Chinese believed that "all under Heaven" should pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. America sees itself as a "city upon a hill," a beacon for the rest of the planet, with its values having universal application.

How have these trends evolved and how have they shaped the history of the respective nations and regions, as well as the rest of the planet? What happened when these views came into contact with each other? How have they ensured a balance between legitimacy and power in different eras? And what position does each of these perspectives hold in our era? How do they shape the relationships between states today?