John McCain Quotes

No great power will allow itself to be strangulated.

Every major power always seeks to justify its action on moral grounds. Such behaviour is almost as old as the hills. The west has been a particularly vigorous exponent of this credo; and there is no reason to believe that China, for example, will be any different. But behind the moral rhetoric invariably lies interest and ideology.

It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce the policy of strength toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness.

… realpolitik

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

[Describing Russia:] ... the most realistic regime in the world—no ideals.

The moment it became in the interests of one or the other of the Great Powers to alter the status quo, none of these treaty structures ever stood in the way of such alteration.

Many politicians in the West cling to the notion of a partnership with Russia. They want to include [Vladimir] Putin, make compromises and constantly negotiate new deals with him. But history has taught us that the longer we pursue appeasement and do nothing, the higher the price will be later on. Dictators don't ask "Why?" before they seize even more power. They ask: "Why not?"

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

No nation has friends only interests.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

I don't believe in ideology in international relations.

The post-Cold War order in Europe is finished, with Vladimir Putin its executioner. Russia's invasion of Georgia only marked its passing. Russia has emerged as a born-again 19th-century power determined to challenge the intellectual, moral and institutional foundations of the order.

It never pays … for one great power to take advantage of the momentary weakness or distraction of another great power in order to force upon it concessions it would never have accepted in normal circumstances.

Russia has been too weak, and the weak get beaten.

A state worthy of the name has no friends—only interests. [This is a generalized expression of British Prime Minister John Henry Temple's statement a century earlier.

Whenever, and from whatever causes, it might happen; and happen it would, that any one of these nations or confederacies should rise on the scale of political importance much above the degree of their neighbors, that moment would those neighbors behold her with envy and fear.

Let the natural process of war among nations smother the weak.

The management of a balance of power is a permanent undertaking, not an exertion that has a foreseeable end.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

The politician, who measures the interests of his country by her preponderance in the scale of empire, regards all consideration of individual happiness as a weakness.

In relations with other nations, there is neither right nor wrong; there is only strength and weakness.

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

So much of our foreign policy is based on other people’s weakness.

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