Quotes from Kenneth Waltz

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

If we are to have peace, we must learn loyalty to a larger group. And before we can learn loyalty, the thing to which we are to be loyal must be created.

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

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.

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

Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth.

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

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

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.