Kenneth Waltz Quotes

States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law.

In anarchy there is no automatic harmony .

Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

If we are to have peace, we must learn loyalty to a larger group. And before we can learn loyalty, the thing to which we are to be loyal must be created.

The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man.

Once socialism replaces capitalism, reason will determine the policies of states.

Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.

To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.

The implication of game theory, which is also the implication of the third image, is, however, that the freedom of choice of any one state is limited by the actions of the others.

War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth.

External pressure seems to produce internal unity.

It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.

The transitory interests of royal houses may be advanced in war; the real interests of all people are furthered by the peace.

No system of balance functions automatically.

Is it capitalism or states that must be destroyed in order to get peace, or must both be abolished?

To solve these problems one needs as much an understanding of politics as an understanding of man - and the one cannot be derived from the other.

In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.