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Anarchy means without government, but it does not necessarily mean chaos or total disorder.

— Joseph Nye Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

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Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Chapter 1, Is There an Enduring Logic of Conflict in World Politics?, p. 23.
Work: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History, 2006
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Joseph Nye

When words are both descriptive and prescriptive, thyey become political words used in struggles for power.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Some say precipitating events are like buses - they come along every ten minutes.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Power conversion is the capacity to convert potential power, as measured by resources, to realized power, as measured by the changed behavior of others.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Systems can create consequences not intended by any other of their constituent actors.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

The cure to misunderstanding history is to read more, not less.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

No one can tell the whole story of anything.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is a strange cocktail of continuity and change. Some aspects of international politics have not changed since Thucydides.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Humans sometimes make surprising choices, and human history is full of uncertainties.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

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Government

More quotes by Joseph Nye

Cooperation is difficult in the absence of communication.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

The new world will not be neat, and you will have to live with that.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Power, like love, is easier to experience than to define or measure.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

The territorial state has not always existed in the past, so it need not necessarily exist in the future.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

The best hope for the future is to ask what is being determined as well as who determines it.

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Nye (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.