Great powers must be forever vigilant and never subordinate survival to any other goal, including prosperity.

The Soviet Union and its empire disappeared in large part because its smokestack economy could no longer keep up with the technological progress of the world's major economic powers.

The ideal situation for any state is to experience sharp economic growth while its rivals' economies grow slowly or hardly at all.

Offensive realism predicts that the United States will send its army across the Atlantic when there is a potential hegemon in Europe that the local great powers cannot contain by themselves.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler believed that his great-power rivals would be easy to exploit and isolate because each had little interest in fighting Germany and instead was determined to get someone else to assume the burden. He guessed right.

Important benefits often accrue to states that behave in an unexpected way.

China, in short has the potential to be considerably more powerful than even the United States.