Quotes from John Mearsheimer

In the anarchic world of international politics, it is better to be Godzilla than Bambi.

This self-defeating behavior, so the argument goes, must be the result of warped domestic politics.

A state's potential power is based on the size of its population and the level of its wealth.

States have two kinds of power: latent power and military power.

I believe that the existing power structures in Europe and Northeast Asia are not sustainable through 2020.

In an ideal world, where there are only good states, power would be largely irrelevant.

The sad fact is that international politics has always been a ruthless and dangerous business, and it is likely to remain that way.

She has admitted she was not hostile to the Nazis before 1940. She says she was anti-Nazi after 1940, but has produced no evidence that she criticized the Nazis then. She wrote anti-Semitic words in 1938–41, and there is no evidence she was compelled to write them. Queried on her anti-Semitic writings, she told me: "I have never written anything in my life that I did not believe to be true.

Many in the West seem to believe that "perpetual peace" among the great powers is finally at hand.

The German air offensives against British cities in World Wars I and II not only failed to coerce the United Kingdom to surrender, but Germany also lost both wars.

The ideal situation for any state is to experience sharp economic growth while its rivals' economies grow slowly or hardly at all.

Great powers must be forever vigilant and never subordinate survival to any other goal, including prosperity.