Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes
28 March, 1928
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"[President George W. Bush] has a vision which can be described with two other words: Manichaean paranoia... the notion that he is leading the forces of good against the empire of evil, that in that setting, the fact that we are morally superior justifies us committing immoral acts. And that is a very dangerous posture for the country that is the number one global power. ... The fact is he squandered our credibility, our legitimacy, and even respect for our power."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 14, 2007.
In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities effectively exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era (1970)
"When Brzezinski says we lured the Russians into an 'Afghan trap' - by supporting the Mujahadeen and that was a great achievement, we've now destroyed Afghanistan and set up a terrorist network, a wonderful achievement - in the same book, I said we have to be cautious about this because he may be boasting. Unless he gives us some evidence, the fact that he says later, 'Yes, we drew them into an Afghan trap' doesn't prove it."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Noam Chomsky, On Afghanistan, Interview with Tim Sebastian on Hard Talk, February 2, 2002.
"This will require a review of our policy toward Pakistan, more guarantees to it, more arms aid, and, alas, a decision that our security policy toward Pakistan cannot be dictated by our non-proliferation policy."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Memo to President Carter following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
"History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy"
Zbigniew Brzezinski— The New York Times, January 18, 1981 [1]
"nation state as a fundamental unit of man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era, 1971
"Benchmarks are targets that have to be fulfilled. They cannot be fulfilled in an indefinite period of time, so there are timetables in benchmarks." (On the "benchmarks" used by George W. Bush)
Zbigniew Brzezinski— PBS NewsHour, October 26, 2006 PBS Newshour (2006)
"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— The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, January 11, 2007.
"I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Spokespersons of US Right 'In Most Cases Stunningly Ignorant', Interview in Der Spiegel, December 6, 2010.
"[American exceptionalism] is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Spokespersons of US Right 'In Most Cases Stunningly Ignorant', Interview in Der Spiegel, December 6, 2010.
"We have a large public that is very ignorant about world affairs and very susceptible to simplistic slogans by candidates who appear out of nowhere, have no track record, but mouth appealing slogans"
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Morning Joe, July 13, 2011.
"This is a highly motivated, good country. It is driven by good motives. But it is also a country with an extremely simplistic understanding of world affairs, and with still a high confidence in America’s capacity to prevail, by force if necessary. (...) This is a country of good emotions, but poor knowledge and little sophistication about the world."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Interview in The National Interest Brzezinski on the Syria Crisis, Interview in The National Interest, June 24, 2013.
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— Chapter 1, Hegemony Of A New Type, p. 9
The language of the internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 1, Hegemony Of A New Type, p. 25
The scope of America's global hegemony is admittedly great, but its depth is shallow, limited by both domestic and external restraints.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 2, The Eurasian Chessboard, p. 35
It is conceivable that at some point a truly united and powerful European Union could become a global political rival to the United States.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 3, The Democratic Bridgehead, p. 75
The key institutions of Soviet power - though weakened, demoralized, and corrupted - were still there. Symbolic of that reality and of the lingering hold of the Communist past was the historic centerpiece of Moscow: the continued presence of the Lenin mausoleum.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 4, The Black Hole, p. 104
The key point to bear in mind is that Russia cannot be in Europe without Ukraine also being in Europe, whereas Ukraine can be in Europe without Russia being in Europe.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 4, The Black Hole, p. 122
The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Conclusion, p. 198
In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but is also likely to be the very last.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Conclusion, p. 209
To put it very simply, anyone can become an American, but only a Chinese can be Chinese - and that places an additional and significant barrier in the way of any essentially national global hegemony.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Conclusion, p. 210
Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Conclusion, p. 211
With the more endowed nations constrained by their own higher technological capacity for self-destruction as well as by self interest, war may have become a luxury that only the poor peoples of this world can afford.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Conclusion, p. 213
For Brzezinski, doing damage to Russia is a hobby.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— James K. Galbraith, Democracy inaction, Salon.com, November 30, 2004
"...foreign policy of a pluralistic democracy like the United States should be based on bipartisanship because bipartisanship is the means and the framework for formulating policies based on moderation and on the recognition of the complexity of the human condition. That has been the tradition since the days of Truman and Vandenberg all the way until recent times."
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Address to the New American Strategies Conference, October 28, 2003
There is an element of delusional obsession in the French political elite's preoccupation with the notion that France is still a global power.
Zbigniew Brzezinski— Chapter 3, The Democratic Bridgehead, p. 62
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— Chapter 6, The Far Eastern Anchor, p. 161
