When asked about the geopolitical changes sweeping the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Henry Kissinger once said that the unification of Germany was more important than the development of the European Union; the collapse of the Soviet Union was more important than the unification of Germany, and the rise of India and China was more important than the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He got this exactly right, I think.  Two things happened twenty years ago in Berlin.  First, the division of Europe dating from World War II came to an end.  Second, Europe lost its place at the center of world history.

American foreign policy was relatively slow to come to grips with this reality.  The Clinton administration in particular continued to look at the world through a Euro-centric lens.  Its biggest international initiatives were the expansion of NATO and the efforts to deal with the humanitarian crises in ex-Yugoslavia.

After 9/11 the Bush administration actually made the shift toward a non-Eurocentric vision however flawed and the Obama administration in its own way is carrying this forward.  Increasingly, the Middle East and Asia will be the focus of American foreign policy.

Economically, Europe counts.  Intellectually and culturally, Europe still has a lot to teach the world.  I still think, for example, that any American who seriously wants to understand international politics today should make the study of European history, ideology, religion and culture the foundation of his or her education.  Europe was the first place where humanity began to build and inhabit a modern, industrial and multicultural society.  You will find that a knowledge of what happened in Europe’s past will give you invaluable and irreplaceable insight into the present and future politics of Asia.  And the study of European diplomacy after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 remains the indispensable foundation of a good working knowledge of international politics and law.

But you will increasingly find that you will apply that knowledge to understanding and coping with forces in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, rather than in Europe itself.

Henry Kissinger is right; Humpty Dumpty has fallen from the Berlin Wall.  And the Treaty of Lisbon will not put him together again any better than all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.