George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
10 quotes
"The worst president is closer by nature to the best then either is to anyone who has not gone through what it requires to become president."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"Building a naval power takes generations, not so much to develop the necessary technology as to pass along the accumulated experience that creates good admirals."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"A century is about events. A decade is about people."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"Wars are times of intense technological transformation, because societies invest – sometimes with extensive borrowing – when and where matters of life and death are at stake."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"Long-term solutions are more attractive and cause much less controversy than short-term solutions, which will affect people who are still alive and voting."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"The great presidents never forget the principle of the republic and seek to preserve and enhance them – in the long run– without undermining the needs of the moment. Bad presidents simply do what is expedient, heedless of principles. But the worst presidents are those who adhere to the principles regardless of what the fortunes of the moment demand."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"Their job as leader was not to solve the problem – the president really has little control over the economy – but to convince the public not only that he has a plan but that he is altogether confident in the plan's success and that only a cynic or someone in different to the public's well-being would dare to question him on the details."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"While you and I are allowed the luxury of our pain, president isn't. A president must take into account how his citizens feel and he must manage them and lead them, but he must not succumb to personal feelings. His job is to maintain a ruthless sense of proportion while keeping the coldness of his calculation to himself."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"Presidents and other politicians manage the appearance of things, largely by manipulating the air and hope."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like
"The reality is that the American people have no desire for an empire. This is not to say that they don't want the benefits, both economic and strategic. It simply means that they don't want to pay the price. Economically, Americans want the growth potential of open markets but not the pains. Politically, they want to have an enormous influence, but not the resentment of the world. Military, they want to be protected from dangers but not to bear the burdens of long-term strategy."
George Friedman, The Next Decade: What the World Will Look Like