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" You go to Paris, or you go to Portugal, you go to Poland, and you ask, 'Who are you people?' They'll tell you, we're Portuguese, we're Spanish, we're Polish. Who are the people that are really European? The people in Brussels, in the E.U. bureaucracy. Europe has not been able to move to the level of patriotic identification with the concept. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Tell

Bureaucracy

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

" Rushing to war is not a wise course of action. "

" Economically, we are, to some significant degree, interdependent with Chinese well-being. That is a great asset. "

" We can't have an intelligent foreign policy unless we have an intelligent public, because we're a democracy. "

" With the decline of America's global preeminence, weaker countries will be more susceptible to the assertive influence of major regional powers. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Will

America

" 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. "

" A Russia that gradually begins to gravitate toward the West will also be a Russia that ceases to disrupt the international system. "

" The security link between us and Europe is very important for European security but also for our security. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Link

Europe

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" The potential for regional conflict in the absence of an internationally active America is real. "

" Hard power makes sense under some circumstances. But there's not a universal solution to global problems. "

" Foreign policy should not be justified through making oneself feel good, but through results that have tangible consequences. "

" 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. "

" The difference between the Bush I war against Iraq and the Bush II war against Iraq is that in the first one, we appealed to the sentiments and interests of the different groupings in the region and had them with us. In the second one, we did it on our own, on the basis of false premises, with extremely brutality and lack of political skill. "

" The future is inherently full of discontinuities, and lessons of the past must be applied with enormous caution. "

" 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. "

" I'm all in favour of grand important speeches, but the president then has to link his sermons to a strategy. "

" Saddam Hussein was an odious dictator, but he was also a very effective opponent of Iran. He was also a very effective opponent of al-Qaida. "

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Opponent

Iran

" The 'war on terror' has created a culture of fear in America. "

" I don't approve of the notion that we should be announcing who should step down from the position of a head of a state unless we are seriously prepared to remove that person. But if we are not, if we are being prudent and careful, then let's also be careful with how we talk. "

" Americans must place greater emphasis on the more subtle dimensions of national power, such as innovation, education, the balance of force and diplomacy, and the quality of political leadership. "

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

" Eurasia is the world's axial supercontinent. A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world's three most economically productive regions: Western Europe and East Asia. "

" The mullahs are part of the past in Iran, not its future. But change in Iran will come through engagement, not through confrontation. "

" All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia. "

" During the nineteenth century, men died believing in the cause of royalty or republicanism. In reality, much of their sacrifice was rendered on the altar of the new nationalism. "

" Peace between Israel and Palestine would be a giant step toward greater regional stability, and it would finally let both Israelis and Palestinians benefit from the Middle East's growing wealth. "