Michael Mandelbaum Quotes

It’s not a dictatorship in the United States. But it is dictatorial to the rest of the world. Who’s going to say no?

We've built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort.

In the past, the U.S. was the centre of the world, where everything was happening. I think my stories have always sought to question this, maybe even criticise it.

In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.

China has no desire to replace Western imperialism in Asia with an Oriental imperialism or isolationism of its own or anyone else.

We really need to stop the imperialist tendencies of countries like the United States and Great Britain.

Yes, I would agree that America, just like Spain was in the 17th Century, is the main empire of the world and they are the ones who, on the surface, are the most pushy: pushing their language, pushing their culture - or what there is of it - pushing by force their system on others.

The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has come.

The United States' administrations... must recognize that Iran is a big power. Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country.

It doesn’t matter if we don’t consider ourselves an empire. Others see us as impinging on their lives, their way of life.

Wealth governs this country, and wealth uses military violence to control the rest of the world as best it can.

We have to really get used to the fact that there is more than one center in the world politics, that the unipolar world never succeeded, that there are more growing, emerging, economic, financial powers…

... we Americans know and we observe the differences between world leadership and imperialism.

Obama represents one-world government, a.k.a. Neocolonialism. Presidents don't change anything locally - they only deal with foreign policy.

For when we talk about the spreading power and influence of globalization, aren't we really referring to the spreading economic and military might of the US?

So every day I'm mindful as I watch the Bush crowd extend their sway into policies of every imaginable variety, and over almost every square foot of earth, that the control of the American state is a matter of urgency.

The dependence of one people upon another, even for the benefits of legislation, is the deepest source of national weakness.

So long as there is imperialism in the world, a permanent peace is impossible.

We all know what is meant by the term 'international community,' don't we? It's the West, of course, nothing more, nothing less. Using the term 'international community' is a way of dignifying the West, of globalising it, of making it sound more respectable, more neutral and high-faluting.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

To call the American role in the world imperial was, for many who did so, a way of asserting that the United States was misusing its power beyond its borders and, in so doing, subverting its founding political principles within them.

Show me one dictatorship in the world that has not been supported by the United States government or some European governments. It almost doesn't exist. I think a dictatorship and hegemony are part of the same phenomenon.

To be influential in tomorrow's world, to defend our values and our development model, France needs Europe and Europe needs France.

I love Washington, D.C.; I love this country, but I think over the last hundred years we've built up would I call an arrogant empire: people who think the rest of us are too stupid to make our own decisions.

Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.