"The first and most important is to emphasize the enduring nature of the alliance relationship particularly with Europe which does share our values and interests even if it disagrees with us on specific policies"
About this Quote
Brzezinski is doing triage on a relationship he knows Washington can’t afford to treat like a mood. The key move is his insistence on the “enduring nature” of the alliance: not a transactional partnership, not a coalition of the willing, but infrastructure. By foregrounding durability, he’s telling American policymakers to stop confusing tactical irritation with strategic rupture. Disagreement is framed as noise in a signal that should remain constant.
The phrase “particularly with Europe” isn’t nostalgia; it’s geopolitical arithmetic. Europe is presented as the indispensable multiplier for American power - legitimacy, basing, intelligence sharing, sanctions coordination - all the unglamorous mechanisms that make grand strategy executable. Brzezinski’s real target is a familiar American reflex: to interpret dissent from allies as disloyalty and to reach for unilateralism as emotional relief.
“Shares our values and interests” is the rhetorical glue that makes the argument land. He’s not claiming identical politics; he’s establishing a baseline of compatibility that survives electoral swings and policy spats. The subtext is almost parental: democracies argue, they bargain, they posture, but they don’t default to divorce. It’s also a warning against the seduction of new “partners” who may offer cooperation without the same normative constraints - useful in the short term, corrosive over time.
Contextually, this reads like post-Cold War and post-9/11 counsel: at the very moment the U.S. felt most dominant, Brzezinski is reminding it that dominance without durable alliances is just expensive loneliness.
The phrase “particularly with Europe” isn’t nostalgia; it’s geopolitical arithmetic. Europe is presented as the indispensable multiplier for American power - legitimacy, basing, intelligence sharing, sanctions coordination - all the unglamorous mechanisms that make grand strategy executable. Brzezinski’s real target is a familiar American reflex: to interpret dissent from allies as disloyalty and to reach for unilateralism as emotional relief.
“Shares our values and interests” is the rhetorical glue that makes the argument land. He’s not claiming identical politics; he’s establishing a baseline of compatibility that survives electoral swings and policy spats. The subtext is almost parental: democracies argue, they bargain, they posture, but they don’t default to divorce. It’s also a warning against the seduction of new “partners” who may offer cooperation without the same normative constraints - useful in the short term, corrosive over time.
Contextually, this reads like post-Cold War and post-9/11 counsel: at the very moment the U.S. felt most dominant, Brzezinski is reminding it that dominance without durable alliances is just expensive loneliness.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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