(CarolynBaker.net) -- Quotes From Zbigniew Brzezinski In "The Grand Chessboard"
"Ever
since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred
years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power."- (p. xiii)
"...
But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger
emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging
America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian
geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.” (p. xiv)
"In
that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that
dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced
and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map
also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically
entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and
Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent.
About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of
the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises
and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of
the world's known energy resources." (p.31)
“Never
before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But
the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion,
except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's
sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is,
defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among
professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to
democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization."
(p.35)
“The
momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive
pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy
and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to
contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the
Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." (p.125)
"Moreover,
as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find
it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues,
except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived
direct external threat." (p. 211)
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