Nicholas J. Spykman

“Nations which renounce the power struggle and deliberately choose impotence will cease to influence international relations either for evil or good.”

“[A] political equilibrium is neither a gift of the gods nor an inherently stable condition. It results from the active intervention of man, from the operation of political forces. States cannot afford to wait passively for the happy time when a miraculously achieved balance of power will bring peace and security. If they wish to survive, they must be willing to go to war to preserve a balance against the growing hegemonic power of the period.”

“Plans for far-reaching changes in the character of international society are an intellectual by-product of all great wars.”

“Geography is the most fundamental factor in foreign policy because it is the most permanent.”

“The facts of location do not change. The significant of such facts changes with every shift in the means of communication, in routes of communication, in the technique of war, and in the centers of world power, and the full meaning of a given location can be obtained only by considering the specific area in relations to two systems of reference: a geographic system of reference from which we derive the facts of location, and a historical system of reference by which we evaluate those facts.”