Lionel Jospin Quotes

Power is the true reserve currency in international affairs.

Those who say that America has to dominate the world, and that you either have to control everything or go home, don't understand the way power is projected.

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…

The dramatic rise of Turkey in the councils of world power was one of the main geopolitical developments of 2010.

In the long march of history, at least two poles of attraction and antagonism have been the norm in world politics. Rarely has only one nation carried the burden of leadership. The unipolar world of the 21st century, dominated for the past two decades by the United States, is a historical anomaly.

I don't believe, in the 21st century, in the balance of power system. This is a European idea of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since the end of the Cold War, hegemonism has become increasingly unpopular.

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

American influence is not what it used to be.

With the rise of America, the global balance of power shifted away from the old European powers.

World power is fleeting. Nations rise and fall.

The origins of the principle of the balance of power are lost in the mists of history.

Although no one likes a hegemon, America will be a better hegemon than others would be.

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?

The only things that matter in the world are Japan and China, Russia and Europe. Latin America doesn’t matter…. And … there’s nothing you can do about the Middle East.

No great power will allow itself to be strangulated.

A superpower does not have to be the bully on the block.

History teaches that the rise of new great powers often triggers major global conflict.

Europe’s slow political decline has been disguised for decades by American power.

Small countries such as Belgium would be well-advised to rally to the side of the strong if the wish to retain their independence.

A new multipolar world has brought more uncertainty into international affairs.

At present, England, America, France, Italy, and Japan constitute the so-called 'Big Five.' Even with the rise of Germany and Soviet Russia, the world has only seven Powers. When China becomes strong, she can easily win first place in the Council of Nations.

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.

American power worldwide is at its historic zenith.

The U.S. has intervened more often in more countries farther from its own shores than has any power in modern history.