Kenneth Waltz quotes

Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it. (Kenneth Waltz)
With many sovereign states, with no system of law enforceable among them, with each state judging its grievances and ambitions according to the dictates of its own reason or desire - conflict, sometimes leading to war, is bound to occur. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
Each 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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
Once socialism replaces capitalism, reason will determine the policies of states. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
Is it capitalism or states that must be destroyed in order to get peace, or must both be abolished? View quote
Kenneth Waltz
If we gather more and more data and establish more and more associations, however, we will not finally find that we know something. We will simply end up having more and more data and larger sets of correlations. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
The transitory interests of royal houses may be advanced in war; the real interests of all people are furthered by the peace. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
External pressure seems to produce internal unity. (Kenneth Waltz)
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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
No system of balance functions automatically. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
The 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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
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. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man. (Kenneth Waltz)
States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
In anarchy there is no automatic harmony. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
I am not saying that such a theory cannot be constructed, but only that I cannot see how to do it in any way that might be useful. The decisive point, anyway, is that a macrotheory of international politics would lack the practical implications of macroeconomic theory. National governments can manipulate system-wide economic variables. No agencies with comparable capabilities exist internationally. Who would act on the possibilities of adjustment that a macrotheory of international politics might reveal? View quote
Kenneth Waltz