Joseph Nye Quotes

Some economists believe that the Great Depression of the 1930s was aggravated by bad monetary policy and lack of American leadership. Britain was too weak to maintain an open international economy, and the United States was not living up to its new responsibilities.

Chamberlain's sins were not his intentions, but rather his ignorance and arrogance in failing to appraise the situation properly. And in that failure he was not alone.

If Thucydides were plopped down in the Middle East or East Asia, he would probably recognize ... the situation quite quickly.

Just as gunpowder and infantry penetrated and destroyed the medieval castle, so have nuclear missiles and the internet made the nation-state obsolete.

Effective foreign policymaking requires an understanding of not only international and transnational systems, but also the intricacies of domestic politics in multiple countries. It also demands recognition of just how little is known about “building nations,” particularly after revolutions – a process that should be viewed in terms of decades, not years.

The cure to misunderstanding history is to read more, not less.

The best hope for the future is to ask what is being determined as well as who determines it.

Cooperation is difficult in the absence of communication.

Anarchy means without government, but it does not necessarily mean chaos or total disorder.

The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is a strange cocktail of continuity and change. Some aspects of international politics have not changed since Thucydides. There is a certain logic of hostility, a dilemma about security that goes with interstate politics. Alliances, balance of power, and choices in in policy between war and compromise have remained similar over the millennia.

Some say precipitating events are like buses - they come along every ten minutes.

At some point, consequences matter.