Quotes from Henry Kissinger

America must distill a common understanding with a country that is the central eventual prize targeted by both the Sunni and the Shia versions of jihad and whose efforts, however circuitous, will be essential in fostering a constructive regional evolution.

In recent decades, Europe has retreated to the conduct of soft power. But besieged as it is on almost all frontiers by upheavals and migration, Europe, including Britain, can avoid turning into a victim of circumstance only by assuming a more active role.

In the military context, shi connotes the strategic trend and "potential energy" of a developing situation, "the power inherent in the particular arrangement of elements and… its developmental tendency."38 In The Art of War, the word connotes the ever-changing configuration of forces as well as their general trend.

Germany achieved unification as an affirmation of liberal democracy; it reaffirmed its commitment to European unity as a project of common values and shared development.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

In the Chinese version of exceptionalism, China did not export its ideas but let others come to seek them.

were history confined to the mechanical repetition of the past, no transformation would ever have occurred. Every great achievement was a vision before it became a reality. In that sense, it arose from commitment, not resignation to the inevitable.

they agreed to cede a third of European Russia to German control in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918.

Asia's International Order and China Of all conceptions of world order in Asia, China operated the longest lasting, the most clearly defined, and the one furthest from Westphalian ideas. China has also taken the most complex journey, from ancient civilization through classical empire, to Communist revolution, to modern great-power status—a course which will have a profound impact on mankind.

The mindset for walking lonely political paths may not be self-evident to those who seek confirmation by hundreds, sometimes thousands of friends on Facebook.

the emperor does not govern the barbarians. Those who come to him will not be rejected, and those who leave will not be pursued."28 The objective was a compliant, divided periphery, rather than one directly under Chinese control.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: "No puede haber una crisis en la siguiente semana. Mi agenda ya está llena" (Henry Kissinger)

Whenever peace--conceived as the avoidance of war--has been the primary objective of a power or a group of powers, the international system has been at the mercy of the most ruthless member of the international community.

The logic of war is power, and power has no inherent limit. The logic of peace is proportion, and proportion implies limitation.

Since it is impossible to be prepared for all eventualities, the assumption of the opponent's perfect flexibility leads to paralysis of action

A great president must be an educator, bridging the gap between his people's future and its experience

Durante los debates parlamentarios de noviembre de 1949, recalcó esto al gritar (algo muy poco habitual en él):

E veio demonstrar como mudanças internas podem abalar o equilíbrio internacional mais profundamente do que uma agressão externa – uma lição que seria aplicada pelas revoluções do século XX, muitas das quais beberam explicitamente dos conceitos originalmente avançados pela Revolução Francesa.

What Nixon sought throughout the Cold War was a stable international order for a world filled with nuclear weapons.

Não fizeram qualquer esforço para incluir a vizinha Rússia, que na época, findo o pesadelo de um «tempo de dificuldades», reconstruía a sua própria ordem consagrando princípios em clara contradição com o equilíbrio vestefaliano: um único soberano absoluto, uma ortodoxia religiosa unificada, e um programa de expansão territorial em todas as direções.

Era um sistema velho de milénios – vigorava já quando o Império Romano governou toda a Europa como unidade – e baseado não na igualdade soberana dos Estados, mas na presumível ausência de limite à soberania do imperador.

É que a visão americana assentava não na adoção do sistema europeu de equilíbrio de poder, mas na expansão dos princípios democráticos, de que resultaria o triunfo da paz.

as políticas europeias consagram um modelo de tolerância e de inclusão que chega a assumir contornos de falta de vontade para afirmar os valores caracteristicamente europeus.

a ordem sem liberdade, ainda que alicerçada numa exaltação momentânea, acaba por gerar os seus próprios anticorpos; mas a liberdade não pode ser garantida nem preservada sem uma moldura de ordem que preserve a paz.