A biography for John Mearsheimerhasn’t been written yet.
“I think there's no question that a nuclear-armed Iran would bring stability to the region, because nuclear weapons are weapons of peace. They're weapons of deterrence.”
“Putin was very clear, as were all his lieutenants, that their great fear was that Ukraine was becoming a Western bulwark on Russia's borders. For them, that was an existential threat. It was simply unacceptable.”
“Great powers that have no reason to fight with each other, but are merely concerned with their own survival, nevertheless have little choice but to pursue power and seek to dominate the other states in the system.”
“India and the United States are the world's two largest democracies, and they are both multicultural democracies to boot. It only makes sense for them to be on the same side.”
“The U.S., over the course of the 1990s and the first decade-and-a-half of the 2000s, went to great places to make China more and more economically powerful. We, in fact, have created a potential peer competitor. This is remarkably foolish.”
“I believe the Obama administration was asleep at the switch, not paying attention to what NATO and E.U. expansion - and promoting democracy in places like Ukraine and Georgia - meant to the Russians.”
“The Persian Gulf war of 1991 and the Kosovo war in 1999 also hardened India's determination to possess nuclear weapons. The United States easily beat Iraq and Serbia by exploiting its enormous advantage in conventional arms. Had either foe possessed nuclear weapons, the United States might not have gone to war.”
“Despite its huge population, booming economy and growing nuclear arsenal, President Clinton, like his predecessors, refuses to show India the respect it deserves. He thereby perpetuates a needless estrangement between two natural allies.”
“Russia's invasion of Georgia in August 2008 should have dispelled any remaining doubts about Putin's determination to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from joining NATO.”
“Nuclear weapons are the ideal middle-class weapons for Americans. They provide massive amounts of deterrence on the cheap.”
“Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the West, Moscow did not invade Ukraine to conquer it and make it part of a Greater Russia. It was principally concerned with preventing Ukraine from becoming a Western bulwark on the Russian border.”
“The key to undoing the Taliban is to sow dissension within its ranks by offering carrots - bribes and positions in a new government - to elements that might defect.”
“I hate shaving.”
“The question of whether or not the United States or any other great power should expand, should pursue regional hegemony, or pursue global hegemony, is all a matter of whether or not that state has a plausible theory that underpins that policy.”
“If history is any guide, most Afghans would oppose an American invasion and fight the foreign occupiers, probably with substantial help from 'freedom fighters' from around the Arab and Islamic world.”
“First of all, I don't believe that the United States has any strategic interest in Syria. I think, from a strategic point of view, Syria is an insignificant country. It's not like Iraq or Iran that have lots of oil.”
“One can justify provocative moves if they serve an important strategic goal.”
“Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion.”
“For all good sorts of security reasons, Israel wants to remain the only nuclear power in the Middle East, but a nuclear-armed Iran could not attack or credibly threaten to attack Israel, any more than it could the United States, because it has a retaliatory capability.”
“The American expeditionary force would easily rout the Taliban in a conventional war - which is why there would not be one. The Taliban would launch a guerrilla resistance from the countryside. It is unlikely that the United States could win this armed struggle at any reasonable cost.”