In my view, America has never had the opportunity to enter paradise. Europe enjoys the paradise it enjoys, in part because the United States provides the overall security that allows Europe to live in a system where military power is not a major issue.

I left Russia in 1993 optimistic that democracy had taken hold despite the obstacles.

If a caterpillar doesn't know its future has wings, it hardly experiences itself as land-bound.

I believe it is still true that conflicts among major powers usually stem from geopolitical rivalries but rarely from economic competition.

When it comes to setting national priorities, determining threats, defining challenges, and fashioning and implementing foreign and defense policies, the United States and Europe have parted ways.

I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy.

It is true that I have known Straussians almost all my life. And the one thing I was taught about them from the earliest age is that they are wrong.