Allowing a friend to careen toward self destruction is not friendship. That is a habit the United States needs to break as it pursues a richer and more deeply supportive relationship with Israel. – Stephen Kinzer
Iranians launched their constitutional revolution in 1906 and established their parliament soon afterward. – Stephen Kinzer
After World War II, the winds of nationalism and anti-colonialism blew through the developing world. – Stephen Kinzer
Hostility toward Iran may not be the silliest of all American foreign policies – that would probably be the continuing trade embargo of Cuba – but it is undoubtedly the most self-defeating. – Stephen Kinzer
Ataturk approved of the mevlevi dervish approach to God as being ‘an expression of Turkish genius’ that reclaimed Islam from what he saw as hide-bound, backward Arab tradition. – Stephen Kinzer
In the past, secularists sought to challenge dogma by the use of rational argument, claiming, for example, that miracles described in the Bible are scientifically impossible. – Stephen Kinzer
Many Afghan intellectuals in the United States believe that their country is best kept together. They are encouraged by the fact that no leading tribal or political figure there has called for secession. – Stephen Kinzer
Canada, Australia and New Zealand have apologised for their treatment of native peoples. – Stephen Kinzer
My general view is the delivery of news is changing in dramatic ways, and will continue to change into ways we can’t even predict. – Stephen Kinzer
The long conflict between Israel and Palestine has, for better or worse, become the world’s conflict. It permanently destabilizes the Middle East, blocks the settlement of urgent crises, and intensifies looming threats to the West. – Stephen Kinzer
The Afghans are probably the world champions in resisting foreign domination and infiltration into their country. – Stephen Kinzer
As publishers focus on blockbusters, they steadily lose interest in little-known authors from other countries. – Stephen Kinzer
Many Americans, and many more people around the world, have been outraged by what they see as President George W. Bush’s radical reordering of American foreign policy. – Stephen Kinzer
During the Reagan Administration, so much attention was devoted to fighting Marxism in Nicaragua and El Salvador that Washington lost sight of longer-term challenges in other countries. – Stephen Kinzer
Prairie grassland once covered much of North America’s midsection. European settlers turned nearly all of it into farms and ranches, and today the prairie landscape survives mainly in isolated reserves. – Stephen Kinzer
No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran. – Stephen Kinzer
To frustrated Americans who have begun boycotting BP: Welcome to the club. It’s great not to be the only member any more! – Stephen Kinzer
Turkey is immersed in a profound social and political conflict between secularists, who have been in power since the republic was founded, and an insurgent Islamic-based movement that seeks to increase the role of religion in public life. – Stephen Kinzer
The United States is now harbouring Luis Posada Carriles. His continued freedom mocks victims of terrorism everywhere. It also shows how heavily the ‘war on terror’ is overlaid with politics and hypocrisy. – Stephen Kinzer
Since German reunification in 1990, historians and researchers have been free to work in the East, where the lost Nazi art collection disappeared. – Stephen Kinzer
In some countries that are darlings of the West, like Egypt, everyone knows the result of national elections years in advance: The man in power always wins. In others, like Saudi Arabia, the very idea of an election is unthinkable. – Stephen Kinzer
Americans overthrew governments only when economic interests coincided with ideological ones. – Stephen Kinzer
The United States has dealt with the Middle East and surrounding regions for many decades in the context of the Cold War. – Stephen Kinzer
Nebraska was home to indigenous peoples for centuries. It became a state in 1867, and has produced an important literary figure, Willa Cather, as well as an investor said to be the world’s second richest man, Warren Buffett. – Stephen Kinzer
Mehmet was the first sultan, and one of the first Muslims anywhere, to defy religious tradition by allowing his portrait to be made. – Stephen Kinzer
Samarkand, with its magnificent mosques, tombs and dazzling ensembles of ceramic tiles, is still one of the world’s most awe-inspiring cities. – Stephen Kinzer
If women are being oppressed in Egypt or children are being forced to join armies in the Congo, for example, it is not only acceptable but wonderful for Americans to be concerned, outraged, and active. – Stephen Kinzer
Few if any countries understand the growing importance of water as fully as Turkey does. – Stephen Kinzer
The two largest oil-producing countries in Latin America, Mexico and Venezuela, sold petroleum to Nicaragua at concessional rates for several years beginning in 1980. The program was curtailed because Nicaragua could not make even reduced payments. – Stephen Kinzer
Without Ataturk’s vision, without his ambition and energy, without his astonishing boldness in sweeping away traditions accumulated over centuries, today’s Turkey would not exist, and the world would be much poorer. – Stephen Kinzer