First of all, the world criticizes American foreign policy because Americans criticize American foreign policy. We shouldn’t be surprised about that. Criticizing government is a God-given right – at least in democracies. – Michael Mandelbaum
Read the news section of the newspaper and there is confusion and uncertainty, a world buffeted by large forces people neither understand nor control. But turn to the sports section and it’s all different. – Michael Mandelbaum
Inequality of any kind, once considered a normal, natural part of human existence, came to be seen in the course of the twentieth century as increasingly illegitimate. – Michael Mandelbaum
Words matter, especially words defining complicated political arrangements, because they shape perceptions of the events of the past, attitudes toward policies being carried out in the present, and expectations about desirable directions for the future. – Michael Mandelbaum
Economic growth is necessary to keep the promise – enormously important to individual Americans – that each generation will have the opportunity to become more prosperous than the preceding one, the popular term for which is ‘the American dream.’ – Michael Mandelbaum
The values, the programs, the formula, the determination, and the patriotism responsible for America’s past success are still here to be tapped. – Michael Mandelbaum
The great thing about baseball is the causality is easy to determine and it always falls on the shoulders of one person. So there is absolute responsibility. That’s why baseball is psychologically the cruelest sport and why it really requires psychological resources to play baseball – because you have to learn to live with failure. – Michael Mandelbaum
The less oil the world uses, the less important the region that has so much of it becomes. – Michael Mandelbaum
The cardinal sin in sports, what could really wreck it, is not cheating to win, which has gone on forever, but cheating to lose. That threatens a fundamental aspect of sports’ appeal, which is their spontaneity. If games are fixed, they’re no different from movies; they’re scripted. – Michael Mandelbaum
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
The American empire will not disappear… because America does not have an empire. – Michael Mandelbaum
In truth, every American administration since that of Franklin D. Roosevelt has maintained close ties with the Saudi rulers, and for a single, simple reason: oil. – Michael Mandelbaum
To call the American role in the world imperial was, for many who did so, a way of asserting that the United States was misusing its power beyond its borders and, in so doing, subverting its founding political principles within them. – Michael Mandelbaum
The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles. – Michael Mandelbaum
If architecture is, as is sometimes said, music set in concrete, then football and basketball may be said to be creativity embodied in team sports. – Michael Mandelbaum
The American political system is so porous, it’s so open, it’s so frustrating for those who are trying to make policy. – Michael Mandelbaum
The United States contributes to peace in both by serving as a buffer between and among regional powers that, while not preparing for armed conflict, do not fully trust one another. – Michael Mandelbaum
The United States will continue to be number one, and I do not see any country or group of countries taking the United States’ place in providing global public goods that underpin security and prosperity. The United States functions as the world’s de facto government. – Michael Mandelbaum
Societies raise their grandest monuments to what their cultures value most highly. As the tallest buildings in a city noted for tall buildings, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were certainly monumental. – 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
American influence in the world is certainly considerable, but the United States does not control, directly or indirectly, the politics and economics of other societies, as empires have always done, save for a few special cases that turn out to be the exceptions that prove the rule. – Michael Mandelbaum
The amount of military force necessary to provide reassurance depends on how dangerous people think the world is. And that I think ultimately depends upon the kinds of government that hold sway in major countries. – Michael Mandelbaum
The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer. – Michael Mandelbaum
American foreign policy, for all its shortcomings, has underpinned political stability around the world. – Michael Mandelbaum
Football is controlled violence, but it is violence, which people have loved to watch since the gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome. – Michael Mandelbaum
