Quotes About Diplomacy

In the nuclear age, superpowers make war like porcupines make love—carefully.

When Khrushchev asked whether his brass hats would guarantee that keeping the missiles in Cuba would not bring about nuclear war, they looked at him, he later told Norman Cousins of the Saturday Review, an informal emissary between Kennedy and Khrushchev, "as though I were out of my mind or, what was worse, a traitor. So I said to myself, 'To hell with these maniacs.'"6

1984), lanzacohetes múltiples de Brasil (junio 1984), bombas de racimo de 250 kilos de Chile (enviadas desde Santiago a bordo de 747 de las líneas iraquíes en 1984).

Sin embargo, cuando en el 2000 el Senado francés propuso reconocer el genocidio armenio de 1915, el secretario general del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores respondió con una declaración que podría haber sido emitida por la embajada turca. Loïc Hennekinne dijo que ésa no era tarea del parlamento y que la historia «debía ser interpretada por los historiadores».

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.

War never can be the interest of a trading nation any more than quarreling can be profitable to a man in business. But to make war with those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door.

from which secret meetings with enemies are born".

There's a couple things you don't talk about in life, and that's race, religion and politics. I try to make sure I don't talk about politics at all.

Free states characteristically attempt to restrain aggressive tyrannies through rational negotiation. Aggressive tyrannies understand the essential absurdity of such negation, but nonetheless participate in it with enthusiasm, knowing that it will camouflage their intentions and win them time. Negotiating with wronged people, one turns the subject of conversation from the correction of past wrongs to the prevention of future wrongs.

Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language another war is in the making. Only one language do they understand—'How many divisions have you?

The engineer said his solution is to orient himself "as a comrade inside of the walls, therefore bypassing the confrontation." He avoids the asshole's wrath by expressing empathy and finding common ground—shared interests such as hobbies, sports, or politics

On 19 July 1956, Secretary of State Dulles abruptly announced that the United States was rescinding its Aswan Dam financing offer. 'May you choke to death on your fury', a defiant Nasser railed at the United States. World Bank President Eugene Black warned Dulles that 'all hell might break loose'.

The common saying is "I'll believe it when I see it," but human perception is more accurately characterized as "I'll see it when I believe it." In international politics where expectations of hostility are common, the results are often unfortunate.

She was magnanimous to former opponents, never retaliating against supporters of her former husband or other adversaries, personal or official.

Peter returned to Russia determined to remold his country along Western lines. The old Muscovite state, isolated and introverted for centuries, would reach out to Europe and open itself to Europe. In a sense, the flow of effect was circular: the West affected Peter, the Tsar had a powerful impact upon Russia, and Russia, modernized and emergent, had a new and greater influence on Europe. For all three, therefore—Peter, Russia and Europe—the Great Embassy was a turning point.

Foreign policy is like hitting a baseball: if you fail 70 percent of the time, you go to the Hall of Fame.

To safeguard these things will not affect the course of battles, but it will affect the relations of invading armies with those peoples and [their] governments.…

There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility.

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.

Sir William Curzon Wyllie?

While there might be some people who were natural diplomats, she wasn't one of them. She was forever butting heads with people, challenging them when she should have been convincing them, raising hackles where she should have been raising support. She had always been in a hurry, without always knowing where she wanted to go; she was too impatient to wait for the right time or the right confluence of events.

If two people stare at each other for more than a few seconds, it means they are about to either make love or fight. Something similar might be said about human societies. If two nearby societies are in contact for any length of time, they will either trade or fight. The first is non-zero-sum social integration, and the second ultimately brings it.

Write in the morning, revise in the afternoon, read at night, and spend the rest of your time exercising your diplomacy, stealth, and charm.