Kenneth Waltz Quotes

The implication of game theory, which is also the implication of the third image, is, however, that the freedom of choice of any one state is limited by the actions of the others.

External pressure seems to produce internal unity.

To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.

The transitory interests of royal houses may be advanced in war; the real interests of all people are furthered by the peace.

The best critical consideration of the inherent weakness of a federation of states in which the law of the federation has to be enforced on the states who are its members is contained in the Federalist Papers.

Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.

Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.

To solve these problems one needs as much an understanding of politics as an understanding of man - and the one cannot be derived from the other.

Each state pursues its own interest's, however defined, in ways it judges best. Force is a means of achieving the external ends of states because there exists no consistent, reliable process of reconciling the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise among similar units in a condition of anarchy.

Differences in the incidence of destruction and "death" do not account for the reluctance to refer to international politics as a harmonious realm, while competitive economies are often so described. Instead, one may say that the standards of performance now applied to international political systems are higher, or at least widely different. As John Maynard Keynes once remarked, those who believe that unhampered processes of natural selection lead to progress do not "count the cost of the struggle" (1926, p. 37). In international politics, we often count nothing but the costs of the struggle.

In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.

States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law.

Is it capitalism or states that must be destroyed in order to get peace, or must both be abolished?

The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man.

It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.