Joseph Nye: Politics

“The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is a strange cocktail of continuity and change. Some aspects of international politics have not changed since Thucydides.”

Joseph Nye

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 1, Is There an Enduring Logic of Conflict in World Politics?, p. 2.
Context: The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is a strange cocktail of continuity and change. Some aspects of international politics have not changed since Thucydides. There is a certain logic of hostility, a dilemma about security that goes with interstate politics. Alliances, balance of power, and choices in in policy between war and compromise have remained similar over the millennia.

World , Change

“I have found in my experience in government that I could ignore neither the age-old nor the brand-new dimensions of world politics.”

Joseph Nye

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 1, Is There an Enduring Logic of Conflict in World Politics?, p. 2.

Age , World

“The international system consists not only of states. The international political system is the pattern of relationships among the states.”

Joseph Nye

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 2, Origins of the Great Twentieth Century Conflicts, p. 34.

“Effective foreign policymaking requires an understanding of not only international and transnational systems, but also the intricacies of domestic politics in multiple countries. It also demands recognition of just how little is known about “building nations,” particularly after revolutions – a process that should be viewed in terms of decades, not years.”

Joseph Nye

"Obama the Pragmatist" http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/joseph-s--nye-defends-obama-s-approach-to-foreign-policy-against-critics-calling-for-a-more-muscular-approach, Project Syndicate (June 10, 2014).

Understanding , Country

“When words are both descriptive and prescriptive, thyey become political words used in struggles for power.”

Joseph Nye

Source: Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th ed., 2006), Chapter 6, Intervention, Institutions, and Regional and Ethnic Conflicts, p. 187.