[Ben Ficklin]

The paragraph you've pasted is the question of unilateralism versus multilateralism.

The cold war was a bilateral world or bipolar world. So after the cold war ended is the world multilateral or unilateral with the unilateral world being led by the sole surviving super power(US), at least until a new super power(China) or re-constituted super power(Russia) arrives on the world stage.

In the post cold war period we have had 4 presidents. GHW Bush, Clinton, and Obama have been multilateralists and GW Bush was the sole unilateraist.

[Mariner]

The question Kissinger posed also refers to deciding when uni and multi meet the interests of the USA.

He's certainly open to both, just thinks it's prudent to know in advance what our interests are. Align when it suits our interests, act independently when it doesn't.