Zbigniew Brzeziński Quotes
“We have a large public that is very ignorant about public affairs and very susceptible to simplistic slogans by candidates who appear out of nowhere, have no track record, but mouth appealing slogans.”
“History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy.”
“Most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world.
They are ignorant.
That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued.
And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.”
“One has to understand what the enemy is all about: the enemy's history, the enemy's culture, the enemy's aspirations.
If you understand these well, you can perhaps move towards peace.”
“A great deal of world politics is a fundamental struggle, but it is also a struggle that has to be waged intelligently.”
“[American exceptionalism] is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency.
Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity.
And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant.”
“Another threat, less overt but no less basic, confronts liberal democracy.
More directly linked to the impact of technology, it involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society.
Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific knowhow.
Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control.
Under such circumstances, the scientific and technological momentum of the country would not be reversed but would actually feed on the situation it exploits.
… Persisting social crisis, the emergence of a charismatic personality, and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the steppingstones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled society.”
“Because you can't intervene everywhere, you don't conclude you can't intervene anywhere.”
“This regionalization is in keeping with the Tri-Lateral Plan which calls for a gradual convergence of East and West, ultimately leading toward the goal of one world government.
National sovereignty is no longer a viable concept.”
“To resolve conflicts, excessive ambitions and one's own fears and aspirationis must be sacrificed.”
“Brzeziński: According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is, after the Soviet army had invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979.
But the truth, kept secret up to now, is quite different:
it was in fact on July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive on clandestine aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
And on that very day I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my view aid was going to bring about a Soviet military intervention.
Nouvel Observateur:
When the Soviets justified their intervention by claiming that they meant to counter a secret intervention by the United States in Afghanistan, no one believed them.
However, there was some truth in that....
You don't regret anything today?
Brzeziński:
Regret what?
That secret operation was an excellent idea.
Its effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it?
The day the Soviets officially crossed the border I wrote to President Carter roughly the following:
"We now have the opportunity to give the USSR its own Vietnam War."
[warmonger's unrepentant admission that the U.S. overthrew the government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and sold it as a Soviet invasion]
“The three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.”
“The outspoken president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, went as far as to state publicly [...] that “any talk about the protection of Russians living in Kazakhstan reminds one of the times of Hitler, who also started off with the question of protecting Sudeten Germans.”
“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
“The turmoil inherent in the shift from a rigidly traditional rural society to an urban one engenders an inclination to seek total answers to social dilemmas, thus causing ideologies to thrive in the industrializing society.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era
“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society.
Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values.
Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen.
These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”
“In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason.”
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives
“Too rich to be relevant to the world's poor, [Europe] attracts immigration but cannot encourage imitation.
Too passive regarding international security.
Too self-satisfied, it acts as if its central political goal is to become the world's most comfortable retirement home.
Too set in its ways, it fears multicultural diversity”
“Russian commentators welcomed this development, viewing it as a positive shift in the global correlation of power and as an appropriate response to America’s sponsorship of NATO’s expansion.
Some even sounded gleeful that the Sino-Russian alliance would give America its deserved comeuppance.
However, a coalition allying Russia with both China and Iran can develop only if the United States is shortsighted enough to antagonize China and Iran simultaneously.”
“Like so many empires before it, the Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains.
Its fate confirmed a scholar’s apt observation that empires are inherently politically unstable because subordinate units almost always prefer greater autonomy, and counter-elites in such units almost always act, upon opportunity, to obtain greater autonomy.
In this sense, empires do not fall; rather, they fall apart, usually very slowly, though sometimes remarkably quickly.”
“Geopolitical pivots are the states whose importance is derived not from their power and motivation but rather from their sensitive location and from the consequences of their potentially vulnerable condition for the behavior of geostrategic players.”
“Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia.
Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.
Russia without Ukraine can still strive for imperial status, but it would then become a predominantly Asian imperial state, more likely to be drawn into debilitating conflicts with aroused Central Asians, who would then be resentful of the loss of their recent independence and would be supported by their fellow Islamic states to the south.”
“However, if Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as its access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia.”
“Expansion will happen if the United States and Germany jointly encourage the other NATO allies to endorse the step and either negotiate effectively some accommodation with Russia, if it is willing to compromise (see chapter 4), or act assertively, in the correct conviction that the task of constructing Europe cannot be subordinated to Moscow’s objections. Combined American-German pressure will be especially needed to obtain the required unanimous agreement of all NATO members, but no NATO member will be able to deny it if America and Germany jointly press for it.”
“The prevailing wisdom that China is the next global power is breeding paranoia about China and fostering megalomania within China.
Fears of an aggressive and antagonistic China that before long is destined to be the next global power are, at best, premature; and, at worst, they can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Perhaps the highest compliment that the world pays to the centrality of the democratic process in American global hegemony is the degree to which foreign countries are themselves drawn into the domestic American political bargaining.
To the extent that they can, foreign governments strive to mobilize those Americans with whom they share a special ethnic or religious identity.
Most foreign governments also employ American lobbyists to advance their case, especially in Congress, in addition to approximately one thousand special foreign interest groups registered as active in America’s capital.
American ethnic communities also strive to influence U.S. foreign policy, with the Jewish, Greek, and Armenian lobbies standing out as the most effectively organized”
“But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America.”
“American television programs and films account for about three-fourths of the global market.
American popular music is equally dominant, while American fads, eating habits, and even clothing are increasingly imitated worldwide.
The language of the Internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.
Lastly, America has become a Mecca for those seeking advanced education, with approximately half a million foreign students flocking to the United States, with many of the ablest never returning home.
Graduates from American universities are to be found in almost every Cabinet on every continent.”
“This remarkable economic dynamism was fostered by a culture that favored experimentation and innovation.
America’s political institutions and free market economy created unprecedented opportunities for ambitious and iconoclastic inventors, who were not inhibited from pursuing their personal dreams by archaic privileges or rigid social hierarchies.
In brief, national culture was uniquely congenial to economic growth, and by attracting and quickly assimilating the most talented individuals from abroad, the culture also facilitated the expansion of national power.”
“France, Germany, Russia, China, and India are major and active players, whereas Great Britain, Japan, and Indonesia, while admittedly very important countries, do not so qualify.
Ukraine, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Turkey, and Iran play the role of critically important geopolitical pivots, though both Turkey and Iran are to some extent—within their more limited capabilities—also geostrategically active.
More will be said about each in subsequent chapters.”
“America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad.”
“[...] a coalition allying Russia with both China and Iran can develop only if the United States is shortsighted enough to antagonize China and Iran simultaneously.”
“Third, sustained inflation also undermined the capacity of the system to sustain itself without social sacrifice, which the citizens were no longer prepared to make.
Cultural decay, political division, and financial inflation conspired to make Rome vulnerable even to the barbarians in its near abroad.”
“The ultimate objective of American policy should be benign and visionary: to shape a truly cooperative global community, in”
“America’s political institutions and free market economy created unprecedented opportunities for ambitious and iconoclastic inventors, who were not inhibited from pursuing their personal dreams by archaic privileges or rigid social hierarchies.”
“Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia.
Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”
Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power
“The world became more aware that America-despite being the hope of many who have the personal drive and ambition to become part of the "American dream"-is beset by serious operational challenges: a massive and growing national debt, widening social inequality, a cornucopian culture that worships materialism, a financial system given to greedy speculation, and a polarized political system”
“It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire [95].”
“The ongoing changes in the distribution of global power and mounting global strife make it all the more imperative that America not retreat into an ignorant garrison-state mentality or wallow in self-righteous cultural hedonism”
“The great challenge today is not hegemony, but turmoil, and coping with the latter requires strategic vision, firmness of purpose, and a clear sense of our values (p. 190).”
“Has observed that bin Laden in twenty of his twenty-four major speeches, both before and after 9/11, justified violence against America by citing its support for Israel.”
“But in this increasingly complicated geopolitical environment, an America in pursuit of a new, timely strategic vision is crucial to helping the world avoid a dangerous slide into international turmoil.”