Kenneth Waltz - War Quotes

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War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth.

Kenneth Waltz
According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity.

Kenneth Waltz
Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.

Kenneth Waltz
The transitory interests of royal houses may be advanced in war; the real interests of all people are furthered by the peace.

Kenneth Waltz
War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace.

Kenneth Waltz
With many sovereign states, with no system of law enforceable among them, with each state judging its grievances and ambitions according to the dictates of its own reason or desire - conflict, sometimes leading to war, is bound to occur.

Kenneth Waltz
Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

Kenneth Waltz