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 Copy Share Image
While analogies are useful, however, they can also be misleading. They smuggle in assumptions that can be wrong. — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
Certainly, protecting oppressed people, stopping ethnic conflict and promoting responsible governance are worthy goals. But none is as important for American security and prosperity… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
In truth, every American administration since that of Franklin D. Roosevelt has maintained close ties with the Saudi rulers, and for a single, simple… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides. — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
In the past when a country became as powerful as the United States, other countries would band together to clip its wings. But that… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
In my experience, it's not just that serious books get a hearing on comedy shows. But serious books get a serious hearing, as well… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
After all, the past is our only real guide to the future, and historical analogies are instruments for distilling and organizing the past and… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Read the news section of the newspaper and there is confusion and uncertainty, a world buffeted by large forces people neither understand nor control.… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
American foreign policy, for all its shortcomings, has underpinned political stability around the world. — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
In the past, a blow to the international system's strongest power would have been welcomed by its rivals. In the wake of September 11,… — Michael Mandelbaum Copy Share Image
