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.
Kenneth WaltzThe best critical consideration of the inherent weakness of a federation of states in which the law of the federation has to be enforced on the states who are its members is contained in the Federalist Papers.
Kenneth WaltzStates in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law.
Kenneth WaltzThen what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.
Kenneth WaltzEach state pursues its own interest's, however defined, in ways it judges best. Force is a means of achieving the external ends of states because there exists no consistent, reliable process of reconciling the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise among similar units in a condition of anarchy.
Kenneth Waltz