Nayef Al-Rodhan quotes - page 2

Those who are outside the centres of power, because of the need for a positive and not simply a stable identity, are likely to find an independent identity appealing. (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
By promoting justice and thus the interests of the international community as a whole, a state will be able to make its influence over others sustainable and achieve its own national interest. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Institutions should focus on educating against clashes of culture and the promotion of a culture of tolerance and peace. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
A lesser-known fact about the geopolitics of resources has escaped public polemics. This refers to rare earth metals or rare-earth elements (REMs), a set of 17 naturally occurring non-toxic materials, which play a pivotal role for emerging technologies and which are predominantly produced and exported from China. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
The power of emotions as drivers of behaviour, especially when survival is perceived as being at stake, needs to be recognised and taken into account at all levels of society and governance. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Morality, if present, should not be relied on because it will be trumped by self interest in most circumstances. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
In other words, it is my view that the brain is preprogrammed to feel good (i. e., to seek a sense of well-being/gratification). This is what I term the gratification principle. This usually occurs as the result of instinctive salient/relevant acts or what we normatively decide are salient/relevant acts. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
If states do not act according to principles of justice, the injustices they perpetrate will harm not just other states but ultimately also their own national interest. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
International cooperation is required to prevent anarchic situations developing and the unmasking of ever-present brutality and injustice that results from fear for survival in such situations. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
One of the key ingredients of coexistence and successful cooperation is trust. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Human and societal security should be seen as complementary to state security, and security must be thought of in multi-sum and multi-dimensional terms (human, national, transnational, environmental and transcivilisational). (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
Policies should take account of the emotional dimensions of human behaviour rather than assuming rational action. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Knowledge is also inferred from what is accepted as established knowledge, with new knowledge being based on the best explanation. This includes possible truths subject to proof. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Knowledge about things beyond our immediate environment may be acquired through deduction, if the initial premises are believed to be correct. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Many of the great achievements in history that are commonly attributed to one geo-cultural domain often owe a great debt to those of others. In this sense, some of the greatest achievements of human civilisation have been collective efforts and are part of the same human story. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
All knowledge is to some extent interpreted. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Policies that assume that human nature is a tabula rasa (clean slate) should be reviewed and revised to reflect that man has an in-built genetic code for survival with no evidence for innate morality. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
A set of global values in keeping with human nature and dignity need to be identified and developed. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Indeed, collective triumph will also depend both on the application of reason and the recognition that a great deal of knowledge is indeterminate and may be temporally, spatially and perhaps culturally constrained. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Dignity is central to the sustainability of history. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Indeed, there is no evidence to suggest innate morality. It is therefore important to create the conditions under which the expansion of our moral communities may become more likely. (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
Humankind is an insignificant part of existence. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
What makes our existence meaningful is highly subjective and ultimately determined by sustainable neurochemical gratification. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
The enduring assumption that human behaviour is governed by innate morality and reason is at odds with the persistence of human deprivation, inequality, injustice, misery, brutality and conflict. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Almost every golden age of geo-cultural domains has been characterised by good governance, exchanges, borrowing, innovation and the adaptation of earlier contributions to forms of knowledge, and rationalism. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan