The future is inherently full of discontinuities, and lessons of the past must be applied with enormous caution. Zbigniew Brzezinski More Quotes by Zbigniew Brzezinski More Quotes From Zbigniew Brzezinski Too rich to be relevant to the world's poor, [Europe] attracts immigration but cannot encourage imitation. Too passive regarding international security. Too self-satisfied, it acts as if its central political goal is to become the worlds most comfortable retirement home. Too set in its ways, it fears multicultural diversity Zbigniew Brzezinski selfhomeretirement To resolve conflicts, excessive ambitions and one's own fears and aspirationis must be sacrificed. Zbigniew Brzezinski resolveconflictambition There are major disappointments with the outcomes of Solidarity: corruption, and major pockets of economic backwardness and even poverty. By and large, though, if there were a choice between the life Poles led in the 1970s and 1980s and now, nobody but a lunatic would say they wanted to have back what they had before. Zbigniew Brzezinski pocketschoicesdisappointment Bipartisanship helps to avoid extremes and imbalances. It causes compromises and accommodations. So let's cooperate. Zbigniew Brzezinski two-extremesimbalancecauses War on terrorism defines the central preoccupation of the United States in the world today, and it does reflect in my view a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy of the world's first superpower, of a great democracy, with genuinely idealistic traditions. Zbigniew Brzezinski visionviewswar Palestinian terrorism has to be rejected and condemned, yes. But it should not be translated defacto into a policy of support for a really increasingly brutal repression, colonial settlements and a new wall. Zbigniew Brzezinski terrorismwallsupport Benchmarks are targets that have to be fulfilled. They cannot be fulfilled in an indefinite period of time, so there are timetables in benchmarks. Zbigniew Brzezinski targetusedperiods Lets cooperate and challenge the administration to cooperate with us because within the administration there are also moderates and people who are not fully comfortable with the tendencies that have prevailed in recent times. Zbigniew Brzezinski administrationchallengespeople America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe's central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy and to America's historical legacy. Zbigniew Brzezinski distribution-of-powerhistoricalamerica The dynamic character of China's nonstatist economic transformation, including its social openness to the rest of the world, is not mutually compatible in the long run with a relatively closed and bureaucratically rigid Communist dictatorship. Zbigniew Brzezinski runningcharacterlong The scope of America's global hegemony is admittedly great, but its depth is shallow, limited by both domestic and external restraints. Zbigniew Brzezinski hegemonydepthamerica We have actually experienced in recent months a dramatic demonstration of an unprecedented intelligence failure, perhaps the most significant intelligence failure in the history of the United States. Zbigniew Brzezinski dramaticunited-statesmonths Like so many empires before it, the Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains. Zbigniew Brzezinski empiresmilitaryfall We should be therefore supporting a larger Europe, and in so doing we should strive to expand the zone of peace and prosperity in the world which is the necessary foundation for a stable international system in which our leadership could be fruitfully exercised. Zbigniew Brzezinski foundationeuropeworld We look a little bit disorderly, indecisive, leaderless. That's a real problem, and that's a problem that concerns me particularly on foreign affairs. The presidency, not just President Obama, but the presidency in recent years has lost some of the terrain that they used to dominate in the making of foreign policy. I think President Obama has to make a serious effort to regain it because he lost some of it himself. Zbigniew Brzezinski realyearsthinking The mistakes of the Iraq war are not only tactical and strategic, but historical. It is essentially a war of colonialism, attempted in the post-colonial age. Zbigniew Brzezinski iraqmistakewar There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel. Zbigniew Brzezinski elementsisraelviews The first and most important is to emphasize the enduring nature of the alliance relationship particularly with Europe which does share our values and interests even if it disagrees with us on specific policies. Zbigniew Brzezinski importantdoeeurope In Iraq we must succeed. Failure is not an option. Zbigniew Brzezinski failure-is-not-an-optioniraqsucceed The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Zbigniew Brzezinski attitudewaramerica
