84 Quotes by George Friedman

But every time new powers emerge they have to find their balance. New powers are emerging, old powers are declining. It’s not that process that’s dangerous, it’s the emerging position that’s dangerous.

This highlights the single most important geopolitical fact in the world: the United States controls all of the oceans. No other power in history has been able to do this. And that control is not only the foundation of America’s security but also the foundation of its.

Assad’s mother was a terror. He was terrified of her and she kept saying to him, you’re not like your father. That’s interesting, but it’s useless information. It doesn’t tell me anything about how the first and second armored brigades are going to operate.

In some sense, the military is the most modern part of a developing country.

Nations do not become strong because they feel like it but because they must.

If you go through the list of things that are not possible you’re left with a very finite amount of possibilities. The fancy name for this is constraint theory. It’s a nonquantitative model, but it’s a field of mathematics.

I’m not a journalist. So I didn’t down and let Assad charm me. I didn’t walk away and say “my god he’s got an Apple computer and he really likes Beyonce so he must be a liberal.”

A research division develops marketing material for its deal makers. We have no policy position. If you have a policy position you can’t possibly forecast.

When you drill down and see the forces that are shaping nations, you can see that the menu from which they choose is limited.