Stephen Kinzer Quotes

After installing friendly leaders in Iran and Guatemala, the United States lost interest in promoting democracy in either country.

Few if any countries understand the growing importance of water as fully as Turkey does.

No one will presumably ever be able to prove or disprove such fundamental religious principles as the existence of God.

The U.S. has intervened more often in more countries farther from its own shores than has any power in modern history.

With the exception of China, and perhaps Turkey, no country in the world matters as much to the United States as Mexico.

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.

In the 1980s, the U.S. Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to depose leaders who had defied Washington.

The difficulty that many foreign authors face in having their works translated into English has effects far beyond the United States.

Rebels in Darfur have learned the value of mobilizing western human rights groups to prolong wars, and this lesson is working gloriously for them.

To kill weeds, you must pull them up at the roots,

No authoritarian leader cedes power easily or turns it over to bodies he cannot control.

Chechens are not ethnically or culturally Russian, and have now been fighting for generations to free themselves from Russian rule.

The idea that Arabia is best run by Arabs is no more palatable to Western leaders today than it was to Napoleon or Churchill.

As publishers focus on blockbusters, they steadily lose interest in little-known authors from other countries.

Challenging orthodoxy is a death sentence in Washington.

Afghanistan's borders are arbitrary, drawn to meet 19th-century political needs rather than to respect ethnic or religious patterns.

New media and mobile entertainment are revolutionizing the way people learn about the world.

Iranians launched their constitutional revolution in 1906 and established their parliament soon afterward.

As long as Iran believes that its security will be increased by having a nuclear program, it's going to pursue its program.

Successive American presidents have turned a blind eye to piles of evidence that Saudi money is being used to foment holy war against America.

Saudi Arabia supplies much oil to the U.S. And it is the world's largest consumer of American weaponry.

Turks have long admired the sultan, Mehmet II, for his military triumphs, especially his capture of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, in 1453.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Latin America moved decisively away from military rule and toward civilian democracy.

Pakistan is not about to crack down on terror groups or cut its military budget in order to build roads, schools and hospitals.

As the United States shapes and carries out its policies toward Muslim countries, it should do so with Turkey at its side.

One of the immutable patterns of history is the rise and fall of great powers. Those that survive are the ones that adapt as the world changes.

Life is not shaped by what happens to you but by how you react to what happens to you.

Turkey can be a bridge to regimes and actions the United States can't reach. Turkey can talk to people the United States can't talk to.

Americans had to choose between permitting them to become democracies or maintaining power over them. It was an easy choice.

Since German reunification in 1990, historians and researchers have been free to work in the East, where the lost Nazi art collection disappeared.

A decision by Germany's highest court that banned the display of crosses or crucifixes in classrooms has sparked widespread outrage and protest.

When Prime Minister Erdogan came to Washington in 2009, he sounded almost like the ambassador from Iran.

Israel is thirsting for water, and Turkey is overflowing with it.

The United States has dealt with the Middle East and surrounding regions for many decades in the context of the Cold War.

My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." In

It is never wise to discourage youthful idealism.

Mehmet was the first sultan, and one of the first Muslims anywhere, to defy religious tradition by allowing his portrait to be made.

Emotion is always the enemy of wise statesmanship.

Mexico needs schools, rural development, and an independent judiciary, not high-tech weaponry.

One day, Mexico will have a leader who is nationalist not simply in rhetoric, but also in fact.

Countries that control water are likely to be the big winners of the future.

As British and French imperialism ebbed following the end of the Second World War, America became the main outside player in Arab affairs.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand have apologised for their treatment of native peoples.

Samarkand, with its magnificent mosques, tombs and dazzling ensembles of ceramic tiles, is still one of the world's most awe-inspiring cities.

Relationships based on deals between leaders or ruling elites tend to collapse amid popular anger.

After World War II, the winds of nationalism and anti-colonialism blew through the developing world.

As recently as the 1970s, some Pashtun leaders in Afghanistan were pushing to create a new state, Pashtunistan, by joining with Pashtuns in Pakistan.

Americans overthrew governments only when economic interests coincided with ideological ones.

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.

Mayors of New York are almost automatically national figures.

No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.

During the Cold War, the non-aligned movement tried to become a 'third force' in world politics, but failed because it was too large and unwieldy.

The reason that Americans have not been able to see the great strategic benefit that could accrue from a closer relationship with Iran is emotion.

What the United States wanted in Guatemala - and in Iran, where the C.I.A. also deposed a government in the early 1950s - was pro-American stability.

The key to Turkey's success has been its ability to reinvent itself as times change.

Many troubled Midwestern towns are grasping for ways to fend off decline and, in some cases, extinction.

Sultan Beyazid considered his father's art collection decadent and ordered it sold at auction.

No offense to Iceland, but Latin America is where the fugitive leaker Edward Snowden should settle.

For decades, Turkey was widely viewed as a reliable NATO ally: prickly at times, but safely in America's corner.

Some major American publishing houses still seek work by foreign writers.

Eagles rarely fail to catch their prey. They usually kill it quickly by breaking its neck with their powerful claws.

Congress, it turns out, is filled with Republicans and Democrats eager to act as enablers for the most repressive forces in Iran.

The dramatic rise of Turkey in the councils of world power was one of the main geopolitical developments of 2010.

Archaeologists have made discoveries that challenge fundamental traditions of Judaism as well as those of Christianity and Islam.

Alliances and partnerships produce stability when they reflect realities and interests.

Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of genocide and become more secure and prosperous than anyone had a right to expect.

Foreign interventions always end badly.

To frustrated Americans who have begun boycotting BP: Welcome to the club. It's great not to be the only member any more!

During the Cold War, America took sides not only in disputes between Arab countries, but also in debates within them.

Chechens are Muslim, and some share the belief that the West is engaged in a global campaign against Islam.

The Afghans are probably the world champions in resisting foreign domination and infiltration into their country.

Washington sees the various local and national conflicts in the Middle East as part of a battle for regional hegemony between the U.S. and Iran.

The long-term strategic goals of Iran and the long-term strategic goals of Turkey are close to the long-term strategic goals of the United States.

If a leader comes to office in a seemingly fair election and tolerates dissent, he or she qualifies for our seal of approval.

Conflict with the United States is one of the overwhelming facts of Latin American history.

In his tub-thumping speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Romney sounded like the hedge-fund tycoon he is.

The fundamentals of what journalism is about don't necessarily change. What will change is the delivery of news.