23 quotes
No system of balance functions automatically.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
In anarchy there is no automatic harmony.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
The transitory interests of royal houses may be advanced in war; the real interests of all people are furthered by the peace.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
Is it capitalism or states that must be destroyed in order to get peace, or must both be abolished?
Man, the State, and War (1959)
It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
External pressure seems to produce internal unity.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
The implication of game theory, which is also the implication of the third image, is, however, that the freedom of choice of any one state is limited by the actions of the others.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
Once socialism replaces capitalism, reason will determine the policies of states.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
To solve these problems one needs as much an understanding of politics as an understanding of man - and the one cannot be derived from the other.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
If we are to have peace, we must learn loyalty to a larger group. And before we can learn loyalty, the thing to which we are to be loyal must be created.
Man, the State, and War (1959)
War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace.
Man, the State, and War (1959)