Henry Kissinger Calls for Peace Talks in Ukraine, Says Leaders Need to Address World Dominated by AI

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon at the U.S. State Department in Washington, on Dec. 1, 2022. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

Veteran U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger has called for a negotiated peace deal in Ukraine amid its invasion from neighboring Russia, in an effort to prevent another devastating world war.

Kissinger, who has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times since he first became leader of the nation in 2000, made the comments in an opinion piece in The Spectator magazine entitled “How to avoid another world war,” published on Dec. 17.

“I have repeatedly expressed my support for the allied military effort to thwart Russia’s aggression in Ukraine,” Kissinger wrote. “But the time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation.”

“The preferred outcome for some is a Russia rendered impotent by the war. I disagree,” Kissinger continued.

Kissinger, 99, helped develop the Cold War policy of detente toward the Soviet Union as secretary of state under Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and later Gerald Ford.

Ukraine has won back large swathes of land seized by Russia since the launch of its “special military operation” on Feb. 24. However, Russia now controls around a fifth of Ukraine.

Former president George W. Bush speaks alongside Henry Kissinger prior to signing a bill to create an independent commission to investigate the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the years leading up to them, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in 2002. Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

Russia’s ‘Historical Role Should Not Be Degraded’

Kissinger went on to note that Ukraine has acquired one of the largest and most effective land armies in Europe, equipped in part by the United States and its allies.

“For all its propensity to violence, Russia has made decisive contributions to the global equilibrium and to the balance of power for over half a millennium. Its historical role should not be degraded. Russia’s military setbacks have not eliminated its global nuclear reach, enabling it to threaten escalation in Ukraine,” he added.

The former U.S. diplomat went on to note that “the dissolution of Russia or destroying its ability for strategic policy could turn its territory encompassing 11 time zones into a contested vacuum.”

This, he said, could have disastrous consequences for the rest of the world, leading to violent uprisings among other issues, which, given the presence of thousands of nuclear weapons in Russia, could pose a real danger to the globe.

Kissinger also noted the need to address the threats of a world dominated by artificial intelligence.

“As the world’s leaders strive to end the war in which two nuclear powers contest a conventionally armed country, they should also reflect on the impact on this conflict and on long-term strategy of incipient high-technology and artificial intelligence,” Kissinger wrote. “Autonomous weapons already exist, capable of defining, assessing and targeting their own perceived threats and thus in a position to start their own war.”

Ukrainian soldiers from the 68th brigade prepare a 120 mm round to fire from a mortar launcher at a position along the front line in Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on Dec. 9, 2022. Ihor Tkachov/AFP via Getty Images

CIA Says Russia Not Serious About Peace Negotiations

President Joe Biden has previously said that the only resolution to ending the war in Ukraine is for Russian forces to pull out of the country.

Meanwhile, CIA Director William Burns said in an interview with PBS published on Saturday that the CIA does not believe Putin is serious about holding negotiations to end the war.

Ukrainian officials promptly criticized the comments made by Kissinger in his opinion piece, saying his proposal served only to “appease the aggressor.”

“Mr. Kissinger still has not understood anything … neither the nature of this war nor its impact on the world order,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Telegram, according to a translation by The Kyiv Independent.

“The prescription that the ex-Secretary of State calls for, but is afraid to say out loud, is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of non-aggression against the other states of Eastern Europe,” he said, adding that “any agreement with the devil - a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories - will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world.”

Kissinger noted in his opinion piece that a peace process should link Ukraine to NATO, “however expressed.” Kyiv applied for NATO membership under “an accelerated procedure” after Russia annexed four partially occupied Ukrainian regions in September.

NATO has promised that Ukraine will one day join the treaty but has not said exactly when.

Reuters contributed to this report.