Quotes About Diplomacy

Republicans used to bash President Barack Obama for alienating American allies, but Trump is turning off our partners like no one ever has.

No other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our economy or our military might - but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them.

Congress, it turns out, is filled with Republicans and Democrats eager to act as enablers for the most repressive forces in Iran.

The more Trump emphasises America First, the more it turns into America Alone.

We have to stay away from the personal attacks. I think it turns off a lot of Canadians.

When people think of digital diplomacy, they think of government tweeting. It is not what it is. That is public diplomacy.

All over the world, the Trump administration is pursuing a range of policies: tweeting insults at Maduro, negotiating with a defiant North Korea, sending a small fleet of warships to the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran. But the speed with which the president always sours on these efforts means they can never be part of any discernible strategy.

Tweeting first and asking questions later is not a good way to make policy - especially in the Middle East.

In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent.

A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.

How could you justify giving Holland twice the amount of money that you gave Belgium? Well, finally, I put it up to them. They said that they couldn't do it; it would destroy them. I said they had to do it. And I finally got support from Hoffman on it.

China is absolutely one of the biggest players in the world and if Britain wants to be connected to the world it has to be connected to China.

Nobody really likes to be lectured a lot. And, therefore, if you want to be an effective person, what you don't do is scold the person publicly all the time.

The cornerstone of our policy in that part of the world is to help democracies. Lebanon's a democracy. We want the Siniora government to succeed.

The kind of power I want is the power to persuade. But I do not want the power to tell other people what to do.

The best way to avoid trouble is to make sure no one wants to trouble you.

That's what world leadership is: A willingness to point at bad guys and say they're the bad guys and to keep the bad guys from getting worse! That's leadership. Obama didn't want to go there.

Most of the international community, most of the countries around the world, don't want any side, any party to take unilateral steps. They would like that all of us to stick to the road map.

The president-elect seems to want Russia as a friend. President Obama arguably has not wanted to say that Russia is that great of a threat.

The Chinese are like a tank through a corn field, they just keep mowing through it. Senators want sanctions against countries supporting cyberattacks.

We could have made peace with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad a long time ago. It didn't happen, because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't want to give up the Golan (Heights).

If we exchange bombs for bread there will be less reason for wanting to kill us. I just want to have the conversation.

I try to avoid conflict. I don't want people to be unhappy.

Syria doesn't want to talk with us on a bilateral basis, only under the auspices of the United States.