Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?
Blaise PascalI’m doing more of my U.N. work and doing the African Union Summit and things like that.
Angelina JolieNo nation should threaten its neighbors by massing troops along the border.
Joe BidenEvery nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
Arthur SchopenhauerNo matter how hard we might wish, we will not be able to transform China’s behavior overnight.
Madeleine AlbrightThere is obviously a gap between the public’s perception of the role of U.S. foreign policy and the elite’s perception.
Henry KissingerNATO has been a thread throughout my life.
Madeleine AlbrightDomestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.
John F. KennedyIt is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.
Joe BidenThe fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad, you’re actually helping to make America stronger.
Michelle ObamaRussia isn’t going to start a war. They can’t afford it. I think Mr. Putin can be dealt with if we stop screaming at him. You can work with the guy. You just have to know who he is.
Colin PowellI do not believe we will have a war with Iran.
John KennedyWe are moving towards a world that is reordering itself and that may appear more ordered at some periods of time, but I see no sign that we are moving towards a world order in my definition of it – namely, a system which is accepted, which is internalized by the majority of the key participants.
Henry KissingerThe only defensible war is a war of defense.
Gilbert K. ChestertonSaudi Arabia has allowed training on its soil of American forces.
Joe BidenFifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.
Barack ObamaWhen I was 18, I went to the Soviet Union. I kept hearing that America was planning to bomb them – lots of bombs were going to come down on these people. I went there not knowing anything, except that I thought the whole thing was stupid and that I wanted to see who these people were that we were going to bomb.
Alice WalkerIn America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.
Barack ObamaA war is a horrible thing, but it’s also a unifier of countries.
Clint EastwoodWe prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.
John F. KennedyThe Bush Administration’s failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.
Barack ObamaWar is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.
Carl von ClausewitzI consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.
Joe BidenIn February 2004, the two traditional torturers of Haiti – France and the United States – combined to back a military coup and send President Aristide off to Africa. The U.S. denies him permission to return to the entire region.
Noam ChomskyUnconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes… can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.
John F. KennedyWe make war that we may live in peace.
AristotleIt’s a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.
Noam ChomskyI am confident my Hindutva face will be an asset when dealing with foreign affairs with other nations.
Narendra ModiFor diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible – and no one can now doubt the word of America.
George W. BushJapan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of the Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two countries. That’s a statement in and of itself.
Dan QuayleI want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.
Clint EastwoodNo country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.
Henry KissingerRomania can be a linchpin in delivering gas to its neighbors and even become an energy exporter for its neighbors across Central and Eastern Europe.
Joe BidenAmerica’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.
Barack ObamaWe have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.
Dan QuayleEach nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.
Dale CarnegieA very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it, too. But the government won’t allow it.
Noam ChomskyWhen George W. Bush came into office, North Korea had maybe one nuclear weapon and verifiably wasn’t producing any more.
Noam ChomskyLaw is always better than war.
Brian EnoDisarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.
Dwight D. EisenhowerLeadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt’s time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it’s different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.
Henry KissingerThe target of preventive war must have several characteristics. It must be virtually defenceless; it must be important enough to be worth the trouble; it must be possible to portray it as the ultimate evil and an imminent threat to our survival.
Noam ChomskySaddam’s goal is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed.
Madeleine AlbrightI have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.
Henry KissingerIsrael is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.
Alice WalkerFree nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.
George W. BushNATO was constructed on the – with the reason, whether one believes it or not, that it was going to defend Western Europe from Russian assault. Once the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse, that reason was gone. So, first question: why does NATO exist?
Noam ChomskyThe U.S. is not constructing a palatial embassy, by far the largest in the world and virtually a separate city within Baghdad, and pouring money into military bases, with the intention of leaving Iraq to Iraqis.
Noam ChomskyThe United States is a violent military state. It’s been involved in military action all over the place.
Noam ChomskyI used to wish there was a useful term for those of us who thought American power should be used to remove psychopathic dictators.
Christopher HitchensFoe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That’s part of the normal diplomatic relations.
Colin PowellWhile the Chinese people, as a rule, are good people, my business dealings with Communist Chinese officials have left me disturbed and concerned about the rise of the Chinese Empire.
Robert KiyosakiThe high probability is if American forces withdraw from Afghanistan and if no alternative international arrangement is made that then the historic contests between the regions and the sects will reappear, the Taliban will re-emerge, and a very complicated and maybe chaotic situation will develop.
Henry KissingerLet us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.
Alexander HamiltonWe live in an inter-dependent world. An isolated India is not in our interest.
Narendra ModiIn a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.
Barack ObamaI don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.
Noam ChomskyThere’s not going to be a World War III, because there is no one to have World War III with.
Colin PowellTake the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.
Will RogersU.S. analysts estimate that Russian military expenditures have tripled during the Bush-Putin years, in large measure a predicted reaction to the Bush administration’s militancy and aggressiveness.
Noam Chomsky