Terrorism is like jujitsu: The small players win if they make the large player use his strength against himself.

Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes you want, and that can be done by coercion, payment or attraction.

American power in the world relies on these ideals of openness and critical debate.

America rests on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.

Democracy is the best school to learn soft power.

Leadership experts and the public alike extol the virtues of transformational leaders - those who set out bold objectives and take risks to change the world. We tend to downplay 'transactional' leaders, whose goals are more modest, as mere managers.

As we think of power in the 21st century, we want to get away from the idea that power’s always zero sum — my gain is your loss and vice versa. Power can also be positive sum, where your gain can be my gain.