A biography for John Mearsheimerhasn’t been written yet.
“What disappoints me about Obama is that, when he came into office, he gave the impression he was going to reduce America's global commitments, in the sense that he was going to wind down the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and greatly reduce our footprint in the Middle East.”
“Soviet foreign policy was influenced only on the margins by communist thinking; Joseph Stalin was a hardcore realist, as were his successors.”
“Convincing adversaries that they cannot achieve quick and decisive wins deters wars.”
“The central aim of American foreign policy has traditionally been to dominate the western hemisphere while not permitting another great power to dominate Europe or Northeast Asia. The United States has not wanted a peer competitor.”
“Military might is built on economic might. You need an economic foundation to build a really powerful military.”
“Erosion of sovereignty is one more reason a powerful state with a liberal foreign policy ends up fighting never ending wars and fostering militarism at home.”
“You cannot measure rationality, you cannot determine whether a state is rational or not, by looking at outcomes - there's almost universal agreement on this point in the literature as well. You look at the process.”
“Peace: it's wonderful.”
“People who believe their critical faculties can help them find moral truth are deluding themselves.”
“Ukrainian nuclear weapons are the only reliable deterrent to Russian aggression. If the U.S. aim is to enhance stability in Europe, the case against a nuclear-armed Ukraine is unpersuasive.”
“Within countries, I believe liberalism is a genuine force for good.”
“The United States was not interested in conquering, occupying, and integrating Iraq into a greater United States.”
“Afghanistan is ideally suited for guerrilla warfare, as the Soviets discovered in the 1980s.”
“Moscow cannot afford to lose in Ukraine, and it will use every means available to avoid defeat. Putin appears confident that Russia will ultimately prevail against Ukraine and its Western backers.”
“Both NATO and the American alliance structure in Northeast Asia are institutions with deep roots that helped win a spectacular victory in the Cold War, and the United States could not walk away from them overnight.”
“I think you can look at the capabilities of a particular state, the military capabilities of a particular state, and that tells you a lot about what they can and cannot do.”
“Even if we somehow destroyed all of Iran's nuclear capability, they will simply rebuild it, in locations that are harder to find and harder to destroy.”
“Security invariably trumps prosperity.”
“Our understanding of the mechanisms of escalation in crises and war is limited at best, although we know the risks are considerable. Pushing a nuclear-armed Russia into a corner would be playing with fire.”
“The reliability of the United States was not a serious problem during the Cold War, because the Soviet threat provided a powerful incentive for the United States to protect its allies, who were too weak to defend themselves.”