Kenneth Waltz quotes

Kenneth Waltz was an influential American political scientist, best known for his work in international relations theory. His approach to neorealism fundamentally shaped contemporary debates about the structure of the international system. He remains a central figure in the study of global politics and security. Here are 26 of his quotes:

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

Each state pursues its own interest's, however defined, in ways it judges best. Force is a means of achieving the external ends of states because there exists no consistent, reliable process of reconciling the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise among similar units in a condition of anarchy.

Kenneth Waltz

Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.

Kenneth Waltz

It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.

Kenneth Waltz

Once socialism replaces capitalism, reason will determine the policies of states.

Kenneth Waltz

To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.

Kenneth Waltz

Is it capitalism or states that must be destroyed in order to get peace, or must both be abolished?

Kenneth Waltz

If we gather more and more data and establish more and more associations, however, we will not finally find that we know something. We will simply end up having more and more data and larger sets of correlations.

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

To solve these problems one needs as much an understanding of politics as an understanding of man - and the one cannot be derived from the other.

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

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

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

No system of balance functions automatically.

Kenneth Waltz

The best critical consideration of the inherent weakness of a federation of states in which the law of the federation has to be enforced on the states who are its members is contained in the Federalist Papers.

Kenneth Waltz

If we are to have peace, we must learn loyalty to a larger group. And before we can learn loyalty, the thing to which we are to be loyal must be created.

Kenneth Waltz

The implication of game theory, which is also the implication of the third image, is, however, that the freedom of choice of any one state is limited by the actions of the others.

Kenneth Waltz

States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law.

Kenneth Waltz

In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.

Kenneth Waltz

In anarchy there is no automatic harmony.

Kenneth Waltz

I am not saying that such a theory cannot be constructed, but only that I cannot see how to do it in any way that might be useful. The decisive point, anyway, is that a macrotheory of international politics would lack the practical implications of macroeconomic theory. National governments can manipulate system-wide economic variables. No agencies with comparable capabilities exist internationally. Who would act on the possibilities of adjustment that a macrotheory of international politics might reveal?

Kenneth Waltz