Omar Bongo Quotes

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

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

Power is the true reserve currency in international affairs.

It is the natural desire of each nation to use the other as an instrument of its own purposes and policies. By dint of our mutual dependence, your influence is amplified by our power. Our power is made more responsible and more effective by your influence.

Both Russia and the United States are struggling to define their proper roles in the world.

Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations.

My book is focused on the power of the American state, not least because the government of the United States governs so much that the case could be made that everybody around the world ought to have a vote in determining some of its policies.

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.

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

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

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

There will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, balances of power ...

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

Why entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?

The U. S. is not the Boss, not the Boss any longer.

Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.

I would never want Ukraine to be a piece on the map, on the chessboard of big global players, so that someone could toss us around, use us as cover, as part of some bargain.

Quite obviously power will continue to play a central role in global politics as it always does. But usually there is something else.

My main concern is with the world order

Like other countries in the world, China must uphold its own sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests. At the same time, we are willing to properly handle differences and disagreements in state-to-state relations.

International politics is no longer a zero-sum game but a multi-dimensional arena where cooperation and competition often occur simultaneously. Gone is the age of blood feuds. World leaders are expected to lead in turning threats into opportunities.

Obama's foreign policy is strangely self-centered, focused on himself and the United States rather than on the conduct and needs of the nations the United States allies with, engages with, or must confront.

Europe has united, China is growing speedily and Russia possesses immense power in terms of fuel resources. The US administration cannot do anything about it.

The U.S. must differentiate between controversial assertions of power, like those in the South China Sea, and fair reflections of China's growing contribution to the world, such as the new banks.

All in all, the League of Nations is not inevitably bound, as some maintain from time to time, to degenerate into an impotent appendage of first one, then another of the competing great powers.