Kissinger is celebrating his birthday today and has been a long-time follower of the Olympic Movement.

He was made an IOC honour member at the turn of the century after serving on the 2000 Commission.

The Commission worked to recommend reforms in response to the 2002 Winter Olympic bid bribery scandal.

"His overarching approach is always to think it from the end," Bach said about Kissinger. 

"That means: always take into consideration what long-term effects your decisions will finally have on everyone impacted.

"Never take a decision today just because of the prospect of a positive headline tomorrow.

"Always try to put yourself into the shoes of your counterparts and try to anticipate their reaction.

"By the way, for a fencer like me, this way of thinking is something that I am pretty familiar with."

Kissinger is an American diplomat and politician who has served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

He was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938 before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.

Kissinger agreed to assist Bach as an advisor when the German was elected IOC President in 2013. 

"The genius of Henry Kissinger is that he can put every issue you raise with him into a global perspective without losing sight of the particular national context," said Bach.

"This is why his advice is so valuable to me.

"Because, as a global organisation, this is exactly the perspective that the IOC needs to take.

"We have to look at issues in sport from a global perspective, while bearing in mind that not everyone shares this global view, but that every stakeholder has their own specific interest.

"With his brilliant mind he analyses every situation, taking into account the present factors, projecting them to the future based on his profound understanding of the wider historical context."

Kissinger is a polarising figure as some celebrate his work as Secretary of State while others condemn him for allegedly supporting war crimes.

He was involved with controversial policies throughout his Government career including the US bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, the 1973 Chilean military coup and supporting Pakistan's military dictatorship in 1971.

Kissinger felt disdain toward anti-war movements of the era and also scorned women, saying "to me women are no more than a pastime, a hobby." 

He is said to avoid several countries out of fear that he might be apprehended, for example in the early 2000s he cancelled a trip to Brazil after rumours swirled that he would be detained for his role in Operation Condor.

The 1970s scheme united South American dictatorships in ensuring the disappearance of one another's opponents.