The most dangerous states in the international system are continental powers with large armies.

In an ideal world, where there are only good states, power would be largely irrelevant.

The German air offensives against British cities in World Wars I and II not only failed to coerce the United Kingdom to surrender, but Germany also lost both wars.

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

Simply put, the most powerful state is the one that prevails in a dispute.

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

The liberal tradition has its roots in the Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth-century Europe when intellectuals and political leaders had a powerful sense that reason could be employed to make the world a better place.