Walter Russell Mead

“The arc of history is long, but it bends toward chaos.”

“American foreign policy is a bit like an artichoke: you have to peel off layer after layer of public rhetoric and internationalist cant to get to the hard, prickly, nationalist core.”

“Populism is the voice of people who feel that they are not being heard.”

“The Jacksonian school represents a deeply embedded, widely spread populist and nationalist culture of honor.”

“Revolutions are not made by majorities. They are made by dedicated minorities.”

“For Jeffersonians, our foreign policy should be as cheap as possible. Let’s have the lowest taxes we can, the smallest army.”

“The purpose of American foreign policy is not to make the world a better place, but to make it a better place for Americans.”

“History is not a morality play. It's a tragedy.”

“Hamiltonians see the U.S. as needing to be the dominant world power, and that a deep engagement with the world is necessary for our prosperity.”

“The Wilsonian view is that the United States has both a moral and a practical interest in spreading American values in the world.”

“The rise of China is the most important geopolitical development of the 21st century.”

“To be a Jacksonian is to believe that the government should do everything in its power to promote the well-being—political, moral, economic—of the folk community.”

“The world is not a debating society. It's a jungle.”

“China is not a status quo power. It is a revisionist power.”

“What the blue social model wants is ever more regulation, ever more government, ever more debt, and ever more taxes.”

“The realists understand that power is the coin of the realm in international politics.”

“The European Union is a project of the elites, for the elites, and by the elites.”

“The American people are not as isolationist as they are sometimes portrayed.”