Robert Kagan

“The jungle will grow back, if we let it.”

“For the United States, the only question is whether it will be a willing or a reluctant hegemon.”

“The United States remains the greatest force for good in the world.”

“The alternative to a world order grounded on American power is not a world of peace and harmony but a world of regional hegemony.”

“The crisis of our time is not an economic crisis. It is not a crisis of party politics. It is a crisis of the American idea.”

“The entire history of the world is a history of great powers rising and falling, and we are not exempt.”

“This is how dictatorships begin, with a president who believes he is above the law.”

“What do you do with a world in which you can't get unanimity? You lead.”

“When you have a world of competing great powers, it’s a world of constant conflict and competition.”

“Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus: They agree on little and understand one another less and less.”

“Superpowers don't get to retire.”

“Liberalism is not a natural condition. It is a great and challenging historical achievement, and it is a fragile one.”

“Our shrinking military and our growing wariness of using it are creating a vacuum that other powers, less benign, will certainly fill.”

“It turns out that the 'end of history' was just a pause. It was a vacation from history.”

“The problem with the 'realist' view of the world is that it is not very realistic.”