Multipolarity is not a policy goal, it's a recipe for disaster.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Smith warns that a world with many competing power centers leads to instability.
- In plain terms
- Having many competing powers is a bad plan.
- What can you take from it?
- Centralized power may prevent chaos.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is multipolarity always dangerous?
- What defines a stable world order?
Another view
Multipolarity can sometimes balance hegemony.
More from Gordon Smith
I have concluded that the U.N. can do a few things well.
Permalink to quote #6 Newspapers across the country and the world have published cartoons that have gone beyond reasonable differences of opinion and expanded into the realm of anti…
Permalink to quote #8 I do not know that there is a more certain sound than Senator Kennedy. I cannot imagine a more uncertain sound than Senator Kerry.
Permalink to quote #5
Related quotes
Japan cannot remain indifferent to anyone's taking action, under any pretext, which is prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order in st Asia for which she…
Koki HirotaKoki Hirota quote #4 If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority,
Jesse JacksonJesse Jackson quote #6 In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest te…
Walter BagehotWalter Bagehot quote #38