Quotes About Diplomacy

I knew that Karimi would not come to the national team but invited him to show that I have no problem with anybody.

IN TOKYO, the American ambassador to Japan heard something about a possible surprise attack. "There is a lot of talk around town to the effect that the Japanese, in case of a break with the United States, are planning to go all out in a surprise mass attack at Pearl Harbor," the ambassador, Joseph Grew, wrote in his diary. "Of course I informed my government." It was January 24, 1941.

When you think about it it's like brexit. There are going to be two years of talks before we even agree on what the issues are.

The foreign policy establishment depends unabashedly on lies.

Todos los Estados bien gobernados y todos los príncipes inteligentes han tenido cuidado de no reducir a la nobleza a la desesperación, ni al pueblo al descontento.

Siempre el partido más débil se unirá a las fuerzas externas, y el otro no podrá resistir

nunca se deve deixar prosseguir uma crise para escapar a uma guerra, mesmo porque dela não se foge mas apenas se adia para desvantagem própria.

A guerra não se evita, apenas se adia com vantagem para os outros

príncipes da Itália

Thus it will always happen that he who is not your friend will demand your neutrality, whilst he who is your friend will entreat you to declare yourself with arms.

It had been Theodore Roosevelt's dictum — using a supposed West African proverb — that a successful leader should "speak softly and carry a big stick.

The House of Savoy never finished a war on the same side it started, unless the war lasted long enough to change sides twice," a Free French newspaper commented sarcastically.

Any fool can start a war, and once he's done so, even the wisest of men are helpless to stop it - especially if it's a nuclear war.

The number of people killed by the sanctions in Iraq is greater than the total number of people killed by all weapons of mass destruction in all of history.

Peace is preferable to war. But it's not an absolute value, and so we always ask, "What kind of peace?

international community"—a technical term referring to the U.S. government and whoever goes along with it.

The United States can be held to lead the international community only if that community is defined as the United States and whoever happens to go along with it, often through intimidation, as is sometimes tacitly conceded. Critics

Now is not the time to look at the past. Lets look forward to the future. Diplomats know very well that these are standard slogans for those who are engaged in serious crimes.

Since 1949, the United States has passed to Israel more than $100 billion in grants and $10 billion in special loans.36 Other bodies not part of the administration annually transfer to Israel $1 billion. This is larger than the amount of money transferred by the United States to North Africa, South America, and the Caribbean put together.

Candor is entirely in order: only the most devilish anti-American, after all, could question our right to act as suits our fancy. If, say, we choose to invade some defenseless country to capture one of our agents who no longer follows orders, and then try him for crimes committed while on our payroll, who could question the majesty of our system of justice? True, the UN did, but our veto took care of that childish tantrum.

You can't have the United States opposing the peace process, because the peace process is what the United States is doing, by definition. And if anybody is opposing the United States, then they're opposing the peace process.

they do not hate us, but rather the policies of our government...

The historical roots of these differences between Europe and the United States are familiar. Centuries of conflict imposed a nation-state system in Europe, and the experience of World War II convinced Europeans that they must abandon their traditional sport of slaughtering one another

The planned elections seem "more designed for the consumption of US Congress and world opinion than for the Guatemalan people."69