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" Basically, I see Iran as an authentic nation-state. And that authentic identity gives it cohesion, which most of the Middle East lacks. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski

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" If we slide into a pattern of just thinking about today, we'll end up reacting to yesterday instead of shaping something more constructive in the world. "

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" The financial catastrophe of 2008 nearly precipitated a calamitous economic depression, jolting America and much of the West into a sudden recognition of their systemic vulnerability to unregulated greed. "

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" Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. "

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" We all have the right to comment about each other. "

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" Because America is a democracy, public support for presidential foreign-policy decisions is essential. "

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" There's something troubling about a condition in which one country alone, which has roughly 5 percent of the world's population, spends more than 50 percent of the world's defense budgets. There's something weird about it. "

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" It is important to ask ourselves, as citizens, whether a world power can provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety. "

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" 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. "

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" Pakistan's political instability is its greatest vulnerability, and a decline in U.S. power would reduce America's ability to aid Pakistan's consolidation and development. "

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" We defended our allies in Europe for 40 years during the worst days of the Cold War - very threatening days of the Cold War - and nothing happened. So deterrence does work. "

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" War triggers unforeseeable military dynamics and sets off massive political shocks, creating new problems as well as new opportunities. "

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" I do think America has made it quite clear that it is in the interest both of America and China to avoid situations in which they will be pushed toward a collision. "

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" Missing from much of the public debate is discussion of the simple fact that lurking behind every terroristic act is a specific political antecedent. That does not justify either the perpetrator or his political cause. Nonetheless, the fact is that almost all terrorist activity originates from some political conflict and is sustained by it as well. "

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" We need to ask who is the enemy, and the enemies are terrorists. "

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" What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War? "

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" Pessimism about America's future tends to underestimate its capacity for self-renewal. "

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" The fact of the matter is the Arab elites are more inclined to accommodate our wishes because of certain overlapping interests that are often financial. That is not the case with the Arab masses. "

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" Given the accelerating velocity of history, we should begin charting deliberately the next phase in its trajectory. "

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" It is in the U.S. interest to engage Iran in serious negotiations - on both regional security and the nuclear challenge it poses. "

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" But if Russia is to be part of this larger zone of peace it cannot bring into it its imperial baggage. It cannot bring into it a policy of genocide against the Chechens, and cannot kill journalists, and it cannot repress the mass media. "

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" It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. "

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" If we can deter the Soviet Union, if we can deter North Korea, why on earth can't we deter Iran? "

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" We should seek to cooperate with Europe, not to divide Europe to a fictitious new and a fictitious old. "

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" Terrorism cannot be isolated from its political, historical, and even social context. "

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" Not to mention the fact that of course terrorists hate freedom. I think they do hate. But believe me, I don't think they sit there abstractly hating freedom. "

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" A waning United States would likely be more nationalistic, more defensive about its national identity, more paranoid about its homeland security, and less willing to sacrifice resources for the sake of others' development. "

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" We cannot have that relationship if we only dictate or threaten and condemn those who disagree. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski