Ronald Grigor Suny Quotes

History is not reassuring on the subject of the longevity of seemingly lasting great nations, is it?

The Algerines, in particular, would never acknowledge the flag of the United States, unless it were made for their interests to do so.

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

When the problems in Northern Ireland started, it was not a question of Protestantism or Catholicism, because the Catholic church was the only church at that time-it was a nationalist conflict.

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

Unity was the real key to the success of the United States. The constitution of 1787 was in many respects the imposition of a central national government upon the quarrelsome states... In a country so constituted, the weaknesses of one state were compensated for by the strengths of another.

Very significant. My mission is to pacify Ireland.

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

Hegemony mean[t] that [Athens] organized and directed their combined efforts without securing permanent political power over the other[s].

Conquest or superiority among other powers is not or ought not ever to be the object of republican systems.

It looks like the so-called "winners" of the Cold War are determined to have it all, and reshape the world into a place that could better serve their interests alone.

When a rising power confronts a ruling power, bad things usually happen.... This is what happens when an extablished entity faces an upstart.... To avoid a disasterous clash like war, both parties have to make an adjustment, but the ruling power has to make more painful adjustments.

I feel like the history between Israel and Palestine has a lot in common with the history between India and Pakistan.

I love studying Ancient History and seeing how empires rise and fall, sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

Without the Empire we should be tossed like a cork in the cross current of world politics. It is at once our sword and our shield.

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

American influence in the world is certainly considerable, but the United States does not control, directly or indirectly, the politics and economics of other societies, as empires have always done, save for a few special cases that turn out to be the exceptions that prove the rule.

On the contrary. Internationalism also recognizes, by its very name, that nations do exist. It simply limits their scope more than one-sided nationalism does.

There will always be nations. The United States will last a long, long time, I believe. France and Germany and Japan, China, other nations, they're going to exist. But they're losing their significance and ability to deal with certain matters.

Remember that politics, colonialism, imperialism and war also originate in the human brain.

All truly historical peoples have an idea they must realize, and when they have sufficiently exploited it at home, they export it, in a certain way, by war; they make it tour the world.

Other nations use 'force'; we Britons alone use 'Might'.

An established power always feels threatened by a rising power.

Empires being neither up nor down do not fall. They change their appearance.