The Inevitability of Tragedy is a fascinating intellectual biography of Henry Kissinger that examines his unique role in government through his ideas. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle It analyzes the continuing controversies surrounding Kissinger’s policies in such places as Vietnam and Chile by offering an understanding of his definition of realism. Barry Gewen places Kissinger’s ideas in a European context by tracing them through his experience as a refugee from Nazi Germany and exploring the links between his notions of power and those of his mentor, Hans Morgenthau. Gewen’s book “is a thoughtful rumination on human behavior, philosophy and international relations, not a womb-to-tomb biography,” John A. Farrell said in a review for The New York Times. “We learn little about Kissinger’s marriages, children or business clients, or the cultural phenomenon he became in the mid-1970s,” said Farrell. “His arguments for his brand of realism — thinking in terms of national interest and a balance of power — offer the possibility of rationality, coherence and a necessary long-term perspective at a time when all three of these qualities seem to be in short supply,” writes Gewen.