Michael Mandelbaum Quotes

United States, Professor
September 23, 1946

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor and Director of the American Foreign Policy program at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He has written 10 books on American foreign policy and the edited 12 more. He most recently authored Mission Failure: America and the World in the Post-Cold War Era.

One thing worse than an America that is too strong, the world will learn, is an America that is too weak.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Strong
- Thing
- Weak
Certainly, protecting oppressed people, stopping ethnic conflict and promoting responsible governance are worthy goals. But none is as important for American security and prosperity as keeping the peace in the Middle East, Europe and East Asia.

Michael Mandelbaum

After all, the past is our only real guide to the future, and historical analogies are instruments for distilling and organizing the past and converting it to a map by which we can navigate.

Michael Mandelbaum
While analogies are useful, however, they can also be misleading. They smuggle in assumptions that can be wrong.

Michael Mandelbaum
The government can give citizens opportunity and it's their responsibility to take advantage of it.

Michael Mandelbaum
Great wars can only be fought by great powers.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Great
- Power
People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.

Michael Mandelbaum
- People
- Should
Let me remind you all that the first task of American foreign policy is to reduce threats to the United States.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Firsts
- Policy
- Foreign

All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Matter
- Policy
- Gains
The American empire will not disappear... because America does not have an empire.

Michael Mandelbaum
The United States doesn't do what it does in the world for altruistic reasons. Nobody set out to be the world's government.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Government
- Reason
- States
The real threat to world stability is not too much American power. It is too little American power.

Michael Mandelbaum
- Real
- Power
- American