A biography for Zbigniew Brzezinskihasn’t been written yet.
“Foreign policy should not be justified through making oneself feel good, but through results that have tangible consequences.”
“The potential for regional conflict in the absence of an internationally active America is real.”
“The Sino-American competition involves two significant realities that distinguish it from the Cold War: neither party is excessively ideological in its orientation; and both parties recognize that they really need mutual accommodation.”
“Look: I don't want to live with a nuclear Iran. I would like to make it uncomfortable for them to seek it.”
“During the nineteenth century, men died believing in the cause of royalty or republicanism. In reality, much of their sacrifice was rendered on the altar of the new nationalism.”
“We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.”
“We defended our allies in Europe for 40 years during the worst days of the Cold War - very threatening days of the Cold War - and nothing happened. So deterrence does work.”
“As America's nuclear strategic monopoly faded, the United States sought to create advantages elsewhere, notably in the peaceful cooperation between the United States and communist China under Deng Xiaoping.”
“War on terrorism reflects, in my view, a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy for a superpower and for a great democracy with genuinely idealistic traditions.”
“It is important to ask ourselves, as citizens, whether a world power can provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety.”
“The problem with the Iranian regime, of course is, one, its unsettling effects on the Sunnis, particularly Saudi Arabia, and, secondly, its potential threat to Israel.”
“If we end up with war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran at the same time, can anyone see a more damaging prospect for America's world role than that?”
“Peace between Israel and Palestine would be a giant step toward greater regional stability, and it would finally let both Israelis and Palestinians benefit from the Middle East's growing wealth.”
“Americans don't learn about the world; they don't study world history, other than American history in a very one-sided fashion, and they don't study geography.”
“To his credit, Obama has undertaken a truly ambitious effort to redefine the United States' view of the world and to reconnect the United States with the emerging historical context of the twenty-first century. He has done this remarkably well.”
“All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia.”
“We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.”
“I would like to promote internal change in Iran - which is more likely if we don't fuse Iranian nationalism with Iranian fundamentalism.”
“The external Soviet empire lasted 45 years. It is shattered, beyond redemption or repair.”