- (rMarch 2009) "The less
people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they will
sleep." -Otto von Bismarck, The German Empire's first Chancellor
- (February/March 2009)
"(Britain
and the United States) have historically looked at the world in a
different way than have most of the European countries. The British
Empire was, and the United States is, concerned not just with the
balance of power in one particular corner of the world but with the
evolution of what we today call 'world order.' A worldwide system of
trade and fincance made both Britain and the United States rich; those
riches were what gave them the power to project the military force that
ensured the stability of their international systems. Both Britain and
the United States spent less time thinking about the traditional
military preoccupations of European power diplomacy and more time
thinking about money and trade. 'A nation of shopkeepers!' Napoleon
scoffed about Britain - but the shopkeepers got him in the end."
Mead, Walter Russell. Special Providence: American Foreign
Policy and How it Changed the World. New York: Routledge,
2002. P xvi.
- (February
2009) "Southern
values had always led many young men to pursue military careers; the
economic devastation of the Civil War and the social prestige of its
veterans made military careers even more attractive to subsequent
generations and ... established a regional ethos of military service
and combative patriotism that continues to influence southern, and
therefore national, politics." Mead, Walter Russel. Special Providence.
New York: Routledge, 2002. P 44.
- (January/February 2009) "States
are self-regarding units. State behavior varies more with differences
of power than with differences in ideology, internal structure of
property relations, or in governmental form. In self-hellp systems, the
pressures of competition weigh more heavily than ideological
preferences or internal political pressures." Kenneth Waltz. Realism and
International Politics. New York: Routledge, 2008. P 42.
- (January 2009) "My
job is to, like, think beyond the immediate." -George W. Bush
- (December
2008) "Force is least visible where power is most fully
and most adequately
present... the usefulness of force should not be confused with its
usability... [that would be] comparable to saying that the police force
that seldom if ever employs violence is weak or that a police force is
strong only when policemen are shooting their guns." Kenneth Waltz. Theory of International
Politics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1979. p. 185.
- (December
2nd - December 16th, 2008) (OK, sometimes it's more than a
week, sorry!) "Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration
of war one
observes the rules of politeness." -Otto
von Bismarck, First Chancellor of Germany in the late 19th
century. Quoted from URL:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/otto_von_bismarck.html
- (November 24th - December 1st,
2008) "All treaties between great states
cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for
existence." -Otto
von Bismarck, First Chancellor of Germany in the late 19th
century. Quoted from URL:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/otto_von_bismarck.html
- (November 16th - 23rd,
2008) "Anyone who has
ever looked into the glazed
eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before
starting a war." -Otto
von Bismarck, First Chancellor of Germany in the late 19th
century. Quoted from URL:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/otto_von_bismarck.html
- (November 7th
- 16tth, 2008) "People
never lie so much as
after a hunt, during a war, or before an election." -Otto
von Bismarck, First Chancellor of Germany in the late 19th
century. Quoted from URL:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/otto_von_bismarck.html
- (October 31st
- November 6th,
2008): "This
war would be one the Bush administration chose to fight but did not
have to fight. Even if such a war goes well and has positive long-range
consequences, it will still have been unnecessary. And if it goes badly
-- whether in the form of high U.S. casualtiies, significant civilian
deaths, a heightened risk of terrorism, or increased hatred of the
United States in the Arab and Islamic world -- then its architects will
have even more to answer for." Mearsheimer and
Walt, (who
belong to the realist school of thought on international relations,
often accused of being hawkish) quoted in 2003 in Globalization
of
World Politics.
Ed. Baylis, Smith, and Owens. Oxford,
2008, pg. 104.
- (October 23rd
- 30th, 2008): "If
the east coast was good
enough for Al Qaeda, it should be good enough for [the Republicans]"
-Sarah Vowel on the Daily Show with Jon Stewwart.
- (October 16th
- October 23rd, 2008):
"[Foucault
claims] that all forms of knowledge are potentially dangerous,
including
those that are designed to promote progress, [because they contain the
risk of domination]. Intrinsic to such world views are distinctions
between those who posses the truth and those who live in ignorance.
Therein lies the danger of domination. In the case of cosmopolitanism,
the distinction between those who think globally and those who remain
wedded to particular communities may lead to forms of power and
exclusion which are established in the name of humanity.
"This
argument
resonates with claims that cosmopolitan perspectives, which include the
universal human rights culture, may form the basis for new forms of
Western power over 'backward' societies. The idea of humanitarian
intervention has been criticized because it elevates 'civilized'
Western liberal societies and because it increases the danger of force
which may cause great suffering to those it is designed to assist (as
in Iraq at the present time)." -Andrew Linklater. The
Globalization of
World Politics.
Ed. Baylis, Smith, and Owens. Oxford, 2008.
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