John Mearsheimer

Now, I want to be clear.

The Americans have wielded maybe even greater influence than Britain did when it had its empire, but I don't believe we have an empire that bears any resemblance to the British Empire.

So the question is, what happened to that British Empire?

What happened to the French Empire?

What happened to the Belgian Empire?

What happened to the Dutch Empire?

These were countries that had colonies all over the planet, the Dutch East Indies, right?

Vietnam was, you know, French Indochina.

Where did those empires go?

Two factors finish them off.

Number one, nationalism.

Nationalism became a very powerful force in the 19th century.

It began to rear its head in the late 18th century and became a very powerful force in the 19th and certainly in the 20th century.

Nationalism is the idea that these different nations...

that were part of the empire, like the Kenyans, wanted their own state, nation state.

This is my point about the Palestinians, right?

This is Palestinian nationalism.

What is Zionism?

Zionism is Jewish nationalism.

Jewish nationalism.