Quotessence
Home / Authors / Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes

Former National Security Advisor

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldPeopleAmericaThinkingIfsStatesWarRussiaUnited StatesPolicyPoliticalUnitedCountryProblemTodayEuropeImportantPresidentSecurityEconomic

Famous Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes

“The political awakening that is happening worldwide is a major challenge for America, because it means that the world is much more restless. It's stirring. It has aspirations which are not easily satisfied. And if America is to lead, it has to relate itself somehow to these new, lively, intense political aspirations, which make our age so different from even the recent past.”

IfsWorldMeanDifferentAgeAmericaPastPoliticalChallengesMajorsHappeningsAwakeningSatisfiedIntenseRelateAspirationRestlessLivelyStirringRecent Past
Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
Create image

“America is the only superpower. But our leadership is being tested in the Middle East, and some of the things that we have done in the Middle East are contributing to a potential explosion region-wide. And if that explosion gets out of hand, we may end up being bogged down for many years to come in a conflict that will be profoundly damaging to our capacity to exercise our power, to address the problems implicit in this global awakening, and we may face a world in which much of the world turns away from us, seeks its own equilibrium, but probably slides into a growing chaos.”

IfsWorldYearsMayEndsDoneProblemHandsAmericaFacesTurnsGrowingMiddleExerciseConflictCapacityChaosWideEastAwakeningAddressesRegionsMiddle EastTestedSlidesExplosionsEquilibriumContributingSuperpowerImplicit
Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
Create image

“America has exercised its power to insist on elections in Palestine, which Hamas did win. Once they won, we then engaged in a policy not only of ostracism, but by financial boycott, in effect of undermining it, and creating more tension and radicalism and poverty in Gaza, which was susceptible to exploitation by Hamas.”

AmericaWinningPovertyEffectsPolicyCreatingElectionFinancialEngagedTensionExploitationPalestineSusceptibleGazaUnderminingHamasBoycottRadicalismOstracism
Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
Create image

“The Israelis have taken a lot of security measures which reduce significantly the ability of Iran to inflict truly severe pain in Israel. But America is vulnerable with 100,000 troops in Iraq and more than half of that in Afghanistan, and we depend heavily on access to Middle Eastern oil. We're sitting targets for debilitating Iranian retaliation.”

PainAmericaAbilityHalfTakenMiddleSecurityDependsSittingIraqIsraelOilAccessVulnerableIranTargetAfghanistanTroopsSevereEasternIranianRetaliationSecurity MeasuresTroops In IraqSevere Pain
Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
Create image

“Today we are in a situation in which the free movement of people can have enormous, monumental dimensions, and I don't think that any country in Western Europe or in America can any longer adopt the idea of totally free movement of people. I t would simply overwhelm their social facilities, their societies and create migratory dynamics on the scales of tens and tens of millions of people. That simply is not practical.”

PeopleThinkingIdeasCountryTodayAmericaSocialSituationMillionsMovementEuropeWesternScalesPracticalsEnormousImmigrationDimensionsFacilityDynamicsWestern EuropeFree Movement
Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
Create image

“In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence, America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the very last.”

FirstsWellsLongStatesHandsRunningLastsAmericaBoundsConcentrationLong RunsSuperpower
Book:Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power
Create image

“Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.”

MayAmericaDifficultIssuesFashionPolicyCircumstancesDirectThreatMassiveForeign PolicyConsensusGeopolitics
Book:The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
Create image

“America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe's central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy and to America's historical legacy.”

HappensAmericaImportanceHistoricalLegacyContinentsGlobesArenaDistributionSuperpowerPrimacyDistribution Of Power
Book:The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
Create image