Editing Zbigniew Brzezinski (section)

==Later years==
[[File:Obama with former National Security Advisers 2010.jpg|thumb|300px|Former National Security Advisers meet with President [[Barack Obama]] in 2010. Seated at the table, from left, are [[Brent Scowcroft]], [[Robert McFarlane (American politician)|Bud McFarlane]], [[Colin Powell]], [[Dennis Ross]], [[Sandy Berger]], [[Frank Carlucci]], and Brzezinski.]]
After his role as National Security Adviser came to a close, Brzezinski returned to teaching, but remained an influential voice in international relations. Polish politician [[Radek Sikorski]] wrote that to Poles, Brzezinski was considered "our statesman" and his was one of the most revered voices in Poland: "During the decades when Poland was stuck against her will behind the Iron Curtain, he and the [[Pope John Paul II|Polish pope]] were the two most important voices for a free Poland abroad. After liberation, he acted as an adviser and champion of the new democracies on their way to rejoining Western institutions."<ref name="sikorski">{{cite news|last1=Sikorski|first1=Radek|author-link=Radosław Sikorski|title=For Poles, Zbigniew Brzezinski was our American statesman|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/05/27/for-poles-zbigniew-brzezinski-was-our-american-statesman/|access-date=June 1, 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 27, 2017}}</ref>

Though he rose to national prominence as a member of the Carter administration, Brzezinski avoided partisan politics and sometimes later voted Republican. In the [[1988 United States presidential election|1988 election]], he endorsed [[George H. W. Bush]] for president over Democrat [[Michael Dukakis]].<ref name="ft">{{cite news|last1=Luce|first1=Edward|title=Lunch with the FT: Zbigniew Brzezinski|url=https://www.ft.com/content/4d03c5f6-3ac1-11e1-a756-00144feabdc0|access-date=June 1, 2017|work=Financial Times|date=January 13, 2012}}</ref>

Brzezinski argued against the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] and was outspoken in the then-unpopular opinion that the invasion would be a mistake. As recalled by [[David Ignatius]], "Brzezinski paid a cost in the insular, self-reinforcing world of Washington foreign policy opinion, until it became clear to nearly everyone that he (joined in this Iraq War opposition by [[Brent Scowcroft|Scowcroft]]) had been right."<ref name="wapo-ignatius">{{cite news|last1=Ignatius|first1=David|author-link=David Ignatius|title=Zbigniew Brzezinski was an intrepid advocate of the 'liberal international order'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/zbigniew-brzezinski-was-an-intrepid-advocate-of-the-liberal-international-order/2017/05/29/609154d2-4487-11e7-a196-a1bb629f64cb_story.html|access-date=June 1, 2017|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 29, 2017}}</ref> He later called President [[George W. Bush]]'s foreign policy "catastrophic."<ref name=NYTobit />

Brzezinski was a leading critic of the [[George W. Bush administration]]'s conduct of the [[War on Terror]]. In 2004, Brzezinski wrote ''The Choice'', which expanded upon his earlier work,''[[The Grand Chessboard]]'' (1997), and sharply criticized [[George W. Bush]]'s foreign policy. In 2007, in a column in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Brzezinski excoriated the Bush administration, arguing that their post-[[September 11 attacks|9/11]] actions had damaged the reputation of the United States "infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks" and destroyed any chance of uniting the world to defeat extremism and terrorism.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Brzezinski|first1=Zbigniew|title=Terrorized by 'War on Terror'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613.html|access-date=June 1, 2017|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=March 25, 2007}}</ref> He later stated that he had "visceral contempt" for British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]], who supported Bush's actions in Iraq.<ref name="ft"/> In September 2007, he defended the book ''[[The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy]]'' by [[John Mearsheimer]].<ref name=YnetSept2007>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3449954,00.html Obama advisor raises concerns], Ynet, September 15, 2007.</ref>

In August 2007, Brzezinski endorsed Democratic presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]]. He stated that Obama "recognizes that the challenge is a new face, a new sense of direction, a new definition of America's role in the world"<ref>Alec MacGillis, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402127.html Brzezinski Backs Obama], ''The Washington Post'', August 25, 2007.</ref> and that "What makes Obama attractive to me is that he understands that we live in a very different world where we have to relate to a variety of cultures and people."<ref>Eric Walberg, [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/907/in3.htm The real power behind the throne-to-be] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910212611/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/907/in3.htm|date=September 10, 2009}}, ''Al-Ahram'', July 24–30, 2008.</ref> In September 2007 during a speech on the Iraq war, Obama introduced Brzezinski as "one of our most outstanding thinkers," but some pro-Israel commentators questioned his criticism of the [[Israel lobby in the United States]].<ref name=YnetSept2007 />

In a September 2009 interview with ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', Brzezinski replied to a question about how aggressive President Obama should be in insisting Israel not conduct an air strike on Iran, saying: "We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?"<ref>{{cite news |last=Posner |first=Gerald |title=How Obama Flubbed His Missile Message |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-obama-flubbed-his-missile-message |work=The Daily Beast |date=September 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924080417/https://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-18/how-obama-flubbed-his-missile-message/full/ |archive-date=September 24, 2009 |access-date=December 28, 2024}}</ref> This was interpreted by some supporters of Israel as supporting the downing of Israeli jets by the United States in order to prevent an attack on Iran.<ref>{{cite news |title=Brzezinski: U.S. must deny Israel airspace |url=https://www.jta.org/2009/09/21/politics/brzezinski-u-s-must-deny-israel-airspace |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090925022008/http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/21/1008006/brzezinski-us-must-deny-israel-airspace-to-attack-iran |archive-date=September 25, 2009 |access-date=December 28, 2024}}</ref><ref>Jake Tapper, [http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/zbig-brzezinski-obama-administration-should-tell-israel-us-will-attack-israeli-jets-if-they-try-to-a.html Zbig Brzezinski: Obama Administration Should Tell Israel U.S. Will Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Attack Iran] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091018033704/http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/zbig-brzezinski-obama-administration-should-tell-israel-us-will-attack-israeli-jets-if-they-try-to-a.html |date=October 18, 2009}}, ABC News, September 20, 2009.</ref>

On October 1, 2009, Brzezinski delivered the [[Waldo Family Lecture on International Relations]] at [[Old Dominion University]] in [[Norfolk, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web |author1=Tayla |title=Thursday, September 24 |url=http://www.hearsay.org/2009/09/default.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913002952/http://www.hearsay.org/2009/09/default.aspx |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 13, 2009 |website=Hearsay.org |access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref> In 2011, Brzezinski supported the [[2011 military intervention in Libya|NATO intervention]] against the forces of [[Muammar Gaddafi]] in the [[2011 Libyan Civil War|Libyan Civil War]], calling non-intervention "morally dubious" and "politically questionable".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/overview_03-21.html|title=PBS: Turmoil in Arab World: Deepening Divisions or Turning a New Page?|website=[[PBS]]}}</ref>

In early 2012, Brzezinski expressed disappointment and said he was confused by some of Obama's actions, such as the decision to send 2,500 U.S. troops to Australia, but supported him for re-election.<ref name="ft" />

[[File:MSC 2014 Brzezinski Kleinschmidt MSC2014.jpg|thumb|Brzezinski at the [[Munich Security Conference]], 2014]]
On March 3, 2014, between the February 22 ousting of Ukraine President [[Viktor Yanukovych]] and the March 16, [[2014 Crimean status referendum|Crimean referendum]], Brzezinski authored an [[op-ed]] piece for ''The Washington Post'' entitled "What is to be done? Putin's aggression in Ukraine needs a response."<ref name=brzukr>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/zbigniew-brzezinski-after-putins-aggression-in-ukraine-the-west-must-be-ready-to-respond/2014/03/03/25b3f928-a2f5-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html|title=Zbigniew Brzezinski: After Putin's aggression in Ukraine, the West must be ready to respond|date=March 3, 2014|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=May 25, 2016}}</ref> He led with a link on Russian aggression; he compared Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]]'s "thuggish tactics in seizing Crimea" and "thinly camouflaged invasion" to [[Adolf Hitler]]'s occupation of the [[Sudetenland]] in 1938, and characterized Putin as a cartoon [[Benito Mussolini]], but stopped well short of advocating that the U.S. go to war. Rather, he suggested that [[NATO]] should be put on high alert and recommended "to avert miscalculations". He explicitly stated that reassurances be given to "Russia that it is not seeking to draw Ukraine into NATO."<ref name=brzukr />

According to Ignatius and Sikorski, Brzezinski was "deeply troubled" by the election of [[Donald Trump]] as president of the United States and worried over the future. Two days after the election, on November 10, 2016, Brzezinski warned of "coming turmoil in the nation and the world" in a brief speech after he was awarded the [[Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service|Medal for Distinguished Public Service]] from the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]].<ref name="wapo-ignatius" /> On May 4, 2017, he sent out his final Tweet, saying, "Sophisticated US leadership is the ''[[sine qua non]]'' of a stable world order. However, we lack the former while the latter is getting worse."<ref name="sikorski" />

Piotr Pietrzak argued that "Brzezinski never trusted Putin and saw him as the post-Soviet man, a product of Soviet imperialist indoctrination, who felt deeply humiliated by how the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact collapsed, but he predicted the escalation of the situation in the East long before Putin took power and much earlier than most of us, possibly because his geopolitical insights were strongly influenced by the work of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Halford J. Mackinder, Nickolas J. Spykman, and Friedrich Ratzel.".<ref name="moderndiplomacy.eu">Piotr Pietrzak (January 12, 2023). The Brzezinski Doctrine And NATO’s Response To Russia’s Assault On Ukraine. Modern Diplomacy. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/01/12/the-brzezinski-doctrine-and-natos-response-to-russias-assault-on-ukraine/</ref>

Pietrzak also suggested that "Although Zbigniew Brzezinski is dead, his work is very much alive; the [[Presidency of Joe Biden|Biden administration]] follows Brzezinski’s geostrategic blueprint, which supports Ukraine militarily, logistically, diplomatically, and politically. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s son [[Mark Brzezinski]] serves as the United States Ambassador to Poland and helps his superiors implement his father’s geostrategic vision on the ground thanks to which the Ukrainian army is still standing and is capable of not only repelling the Russian offensive but actually launching a successful counter-offensive. The question is what constitutes the Brzezinski Doctrine today? Would Brzezinski see Ukraine as a potential NATO member or a frozen buffer zone between the transatlantic community and an increasingly assertive, hawkish, and unpredictable Russian giant?".<ref name="moderndiplomacy.eu"/>