Caroline Elkins Quotes
Empires aren’t out there to do good. They are out there to benefit the nation state.
Caroline Elkins, Historian, Interview, PBS, The Charlie Rose Show, August 2, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
After the economic & power collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the only remaining superpower. Givern Russia's diminshed capability and many Americans still carrying resentments about the Cold War, America's foreign policy and diplomacy did not treat Russia as if they were a very important power in the world. Puten greatly resented the fact that Russia was no longer considered or treated like a world power, Russia had a nuclear arsenal and a total delivery system what was in the same destructive potential class as the United States. There were many Russiabs who had similar resentments and Putin sert out to adopt policieis and practices that would force the United States and the other nations to consider them with more dignity, respect and consdideration. This was a typical statement of the period when he was "stoking the fires of Russian resentment.
Muslim clerics usually have little education beyond their study of the Koran and other holy books. Unlike most Western clerics who are college graduates, they often have little non-religious sophistication. This quotation is a great example of this. Al-Bouti, interviewed on Syrian TV accuses the United States of something that almost all basic students of political science and international relations know is true of every country including his own. However, the fundamentalist Muslim is supposed to be governed in all things by only one thing—the word of Allah as revealed by His Prophet Muhammad. So he believes that good, moral nations—especially Islamic ones will view the entire world, not through the lens of self interest but through the Koran. Syria, in particular, is one of the most selfish and least moral nations in its diplomacy and foreign policy and much of its activity would even be considered morally wrong by most moderate Islamic clergy.
Howe had written Franklin attempting to stave off a American break with England. Franklin, with the approval of the Continental Congress, replied. This line was a veiled warning of a type of “domino effect” which indeed came to pass.
He was visiting the Middle East at the time of the interview.
Caroline Elkins (born 1969) is a professor of history and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, a visiting professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and the founding director of Harvard's Center for African Studies.
