Stephen Kinzer quotes

Alliances and partnerships produce stability when they reflect realities and interests. (Stephen Kinzer)
Without Ataturk's vision, without his ambition and energy, without his astonishing boldness in sweeping away traditions accumulated over centuries, today's Turkey would not exist, and the world would be much poorer. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
At the end of the day, there is still one function of journalism that cannot be computerized, and that is reporters. You're always going to need reporters. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
In the past, secularists sought to challenge dogma by the use of rational argument, claiming, for example, that miracles described in the Bible are scientifically impossible. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
New media and mobile entertainment are revolutionizing the way people learn about the world. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
The Afghans are probably the world champions in resisting foreign domination and infiltration into their country. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Mexico needs schools, rural development, and an independent judiciary, not high-tech weaponry. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Adroit geo-strategists take new realities into account as they try to imagine how global politics will unfold. In the foreign policy business, however, inertia is a powerful force and 'adroit' a little-known concept. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Revolutionaries who come to power by force of arms usually have great crimes in their background. Leaders who survive campaigns by great powers to destroy them do not survive because they observe the niceties of law. Subversives who shape world events by covert action and violence work in shadows and detest the light of day. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
One October day in 1976, a Cuban airliner exploded over the Caribbean and crashed, killing all 73 people aboard. There should have been 74. I had a ticket on that flight, but changed my reservation at the last moment and flew to Havana on an earlier plane. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
In the 1980s, the U.S. Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to depose leaders who had defied Washington. (Stephen Kinzer)
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers created the 'Fertile Crescent' where some of the first civilizations emerged. Today they are immensely important resources, politically as well as geographically. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
In 1907, Britain and Russia signed a treaty dividing Iran between them; no Iranian was at the negotiations or even knew they were taking place. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
My general view is the delivery of news is changing in dramatic ways, and will continue to change into ways we can't even predict. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Countries that control water are likely to be the big winners of the future. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
The United States has dealt with the Middle East and surrounding regions for many decades in the context of the Cold War. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Congress, it turns out, is filled with Republicans and Democrats eager to act as enablers for the most repressive forces in Iran. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Hostility toward Iran may not be the silliest of all American foreign policies - that would probably be the continuing trade embargo of Cuba - but it is undoubtedly the most self-defeating. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Ataturk approved of the mevlevi dervish approach to God as being 'an expression of Turkish genius' that reclaimed Islam from what he saw as hide-bound, backward Arab tradition. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
As publishers focus on blockbusters, they steadily lose interest in little-known authors from other countries. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a 'win' for both sides. (Stephen Kinzer)
When Prime Minister Erdogan came to Washington in 2009, he sounded almost like the ambassador from Iran. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Israel deserves special treatment from the United States, both for historical reasons and because there can be no regional peace without a secure Israel. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
Emotion is always the enemy of wise statesmanship. View quote
Stephen Kinzer
There is much to justify Turkey's reverence for Ataturk. He is the force that allowed Turkey to rise from the ashes of defeat and emerge as a vibrant new nation. View quote
Stephen Kinzer