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George Friedman Quotes

born 1949 Hungary

George Friedman (born 1 February 1949) is a Hungarian-born American writer, geopolitical forecaster, and strategist on international affairs. He is the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, a new online publication that analyzes and forecasts the course of global events.

Hungary
Anti-communists
Businesspeople
Political scientists

Random George Friedman quote

19 quotes

The United States Navy controls all of the oceans of the world.

Europe dominated the world, but it failed to dominate itself. For five hundred years Europe tore itself apart in civil wars.

Japan must import all of its major minerals, from oil to aluminum. Without those imports-particularly oil-Japan stops being an industrial power in a matter of months.

The twenty-first century will be the American century.

Contemporary Europe is a search for an exit from hell.

The Next Decade: Where We've Been ... And Where We're Going (2010)

Al Qaeda has failed in its goals. The United States has succeeded, not so much in winning the war as in preventing the Islamists from winning, and, from a geopolitical perspective, that is good enough.

The twenty-first century has begun with an American success that on the surface looks like not only a defeat but a deep political and moral embarrassment.

Europe has always been a bloody place.

The Next Decade: Where We've Been ... And Where We're Going (2010)

In the United States, minority populations were never an indigestible mass... [A]ll came, clustered and dispersed, and added new cultural layers to the general society. This has always been the strength of the United States.

[D]isequilibrium will dominate the twenty-first century, as will efforts to contain the United States. It will be a dangerous century, particularly for the rest of the world.

When I was growing up in the 1950s, the twenty-first century was an idea associated with science fiction, not a reality in which I would live. Practical people focus on the next moment and leave the centuries to dreamers. But the truth is that the twenty-first century has turned out to be a very practical concern to me. I will spent a good deal of my life in it.

Old institutions have shattered, but new ones have not yet emerged. The twenty-first century will be a period in which a range of new institutions, moral systems, and practices will begin their first tentative emergence. The first half of the twenty-first century will be marked by intense social conflict globally. All of this frames the international struggles of the twenty-first century.

[T]he twenty-first century truly began on September 11, 2001, ten years later, when planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Two forces are emerging that will moot global warming. First, the end of the population explosion will, over the decades, reduce the increases in demand for just about everything. Second, the increase in the cost of both finding and using hydrocarbons will increase the hunger for alternatives.

Understand that you're now in a superheated atmosphere; there are all kinds of rumors floating around. And one of the players is deliberately feeding us lies.

Interview with Matt Bai (2003)

If human beings can simply decide on what they want to do and then do it, then forecasting is impossible. Free will is beyond forecasting. But what is most interesting about humans is how unfree they are. It is possible for people today to have ten children, but hardly anyone does. We are deeply constrained in what we do by the time and place in which we live.

Mexico will emerge as a major global economic power. Ranked fourteenth or fifteenth early in the century, it will be firmly within the top ten by 2080. With a population of 100 million, it will be a power to be reckoned with anywhere in the world—except on the southern border of the United States.

In the United States, minority populations were never an indigestible mass—with the major exceptions of the one ethnic group that did not come here voluntarily (African Americans) and those who were here when Europeans arrived (American Indians). The rest all came, clustered and dispersed, and added new cultural layers to the general society. This has always been the strength of the United States. In much of Europe, for example, Muslims have retained religious and national identities distinct from the general population, and the general population has given them little encouragement to blend. The strength of their own culture has therefore been overwhelming.

I need caffeine. I need sugar. I need beef.

Interview with Matt Bai (2003)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: George Friedman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.