No authoritarian leader cedes power easily or turns it over to bodies he cannot control. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
During the Cold War, the non-aligned movement tried to become a ‘third force’ in world politics, but failed because it was too large and unwieldy. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
Most Pakistani politics is conducted within a narrow spectrum. Politicians spend much time debating the best ways to fight India, or take Kashmir, or dominate Afghanistan, or punish the United States for its real and imagined sins. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
On Aug. 19, 1953, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran became the first victim of a C.I.A. coup. Ten months later, on June 27, 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala became the second. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers created the ‘Fertile Crescent’ where some of the first civilizations emerged. Today they are immensely important resources, politically as well as geographically. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
Human Rights Watch wants Rwandans to be able to speak freely about their ethnic hatreds, and to allow political parties connected with the defeated genocide army to campaign freely for power. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
During the 19th century, Britain fought two wars in unsuccessful attempts to subjugate the Afghans. When Britain finally drew a border between India and Afghanistan in 1893, Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan were cut off from related tribes across the border in what was then India and is now Pakistan. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
More than half of Guatemalans are pureblooded Indians, descendants of the proud Maya-Quiche tribes. In their mist-shrouded villages, the Indians worship the corn god and the rain god, only vaguely concerned with the political entity known as Guatemala. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
The idea that Arabia is best run by Arabs is no more palatable to Western leaders today than it was to Napoleon or Churchill. Stephen Kinzer Read Quote
