Robert Gilpin Quotes

Despite its increased dependence on the international economy, America continues to behave as if it were either a closed economy or the leader whom everyone else should automatically follow.

The historical record suggests that the transition to to a new hegemon has always been attended by what I have elsewhere called hegemonic war.

Many critics see international trade as a form of cultural imperialism that must be strictly controlled.

The world economy diffuses rather than concentrates wealth.

Powerful groups set constraints on and may even determine the actions of state authority. They constitute the society that is protected by the state; their particular concept of justice reigns. The definition and functioning of property rights tend to advance their interest and welfare. ...the basic domestic function of the state is to define and protect property rights of individuals and groups. ...The primary external function of the state is to protect the property rights and personal security of its members vis-à-vis the citizens and actions of other states.

When once asked what was missing from his classic textbook, Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson is reported to have responded, "the class struggle."

How can the human race, whether for selfish or more cosmopolitan ends, understand and control the seemingly blind forces of history?

[In] the definition of international system... There is some "form of control" that regulates behavior and may range from informal rules of the system to formal institutions. ...A view prevalent among many scholars of political science is that the essence of international relations is precisely the absence of control... a condition of anarchy...

In many societies the domestic social costs of adjustment to changing patterns of comparative advantage are believed to outweigh the advantages of further trade liberalization.

A market is not politically neutral; its existence creates economic power which one actor can use against another.

The relative stability of the system is... largely determined by its capacity to adjust to the demands of the actors affected by changing political and environmental conditions.

In short, the elimination of the financial legacy of Reaganomics could force the United States to make some exceptionally difficult choices indeed.

Through exploitation of its influence over global financial affairs, the United States has been able to cover the costs of its hegemonic position, preserve a false domestic prosperity, and mask the consequences of its relative political and economic decline.

The clustering of technological innovation in time and space helps explain both the uneven growth among nations and the rise and decline of hegemonic powers.

Among the many factors that make a return to halcyon days of the first decades of the postwar era virtually impossible is the decline of clearly defined political leadership.