Quotes by Joseph Nye

“I think most Americans still hope for a peaceful and beneficial future with China. As (former) President (Bill) Clinton once said, we have more to fear from a poor weak China than from a rich and democratic China.”

“getting people to sit in the back office and connect dots has not been their strong suit. Now they know they have to do it. The question is, Will they?”

“She did a good job of explaining what has been a veiled policy, ... She has a vision of democracy in the Middle East as a means of eliminating terrorism, but there is an inadequate roadmap for implementing that strategy. We just didnt hear about it.”

“Theyre nice ideals, appropriate especially in this setting celebrating Woodrow Wilson, but theyre not enough, ... The strategy wasnt there and it hasnt been there.”

“She has enormously improved the Wilson School, ... Ive said to my successor, youve got to look over your back.”

“In recent years, both China and India have adopted foreign policies that have increased their attractiveness to others. But neither country yet ranks high on the various indices of potential soft-power resources that are possessed by the U.S., Europe and Japan.”

“The resistance to globalization has a new quality today. You have populist leaders in developing countries who are empowered by high oil prices and you have a protectionist climate in the rich countries. The two trends reinforce each other and could slow globalization.”

“We appear to be turning to a conservative cycle in the major countries. President Bushs administration will find they have more allies, and this will be a big plus for them.”

“The government really needs to focus on recruiting people for their first job and first opportunity. Often, most people simply price themselves out of the market.”

Terrorism is like jujitsu: The small players win if they make the large player use his strength against himself.

Leadership experts and the public alike extol the virtues of transformational leaders - those who set out bold objectives and take risks to change the world. We tend to downplay transactional leaders, whose goals are more modest, as mere managers.

As we think of power in the 21st century, we want to get away from the idea that powers always zero sum - my gain is your loss and vice versa. Power can also be positive sum, where your gain can be my gain.