How do you keep war accountable to the American people when war becomes invisible and virtual?
About Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto.
More quotes from Michael Ignatieff
There’s a civic nationalism in Britain and dozens of other countries.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
I was with the U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on the day that Srebrenica fell, which happened to be a huge historical turning point in the Bosnian war.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
Your generation and mine have had very little real experience; we’ve been severed from the direct experience of war by some very good things. By the end of the draft, and by the defeat in Vietnam.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
How do you keep war accountable to the American people when war becomes invisible and virtual?
Canadian professor, writer and politician
There’s a way in which these guys all think absolutely media, day and night. Access is what it’s all about, so they spin 24 hours a day and that’s a problem.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
I think no one could have made peace in Bosnia besides Holbrooke.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
The wars of the future will be fought by computer technicians and by lawyers and high-altitude specialists, and that may mean war will be increasingly abstract, hard to think about and hard to control.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
All war aims for impunity.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
Patriotism is strong nationalistic feeling for a country whose borders and whose legitimacy and whose ethnic composition is taken for granted.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
There’s intense national feeling in America that could be called patriotism.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
What we want is to become masters in our own house.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
There are lots of nations in the world or national peoples who don’t yet have states. They’re inside someone else’s state and they want a state of their own.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
It’s good for people to believe in causes larger than themselves.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
We wanted this war and now we’ve got it, and I’m not sure that we know what to do with it.
Canadian professor, writer and politician
There’s a financial cost, but the only costs that are ever real are the costs of our soldiers.
Canadian professor, writer and politician