Quotes About Diplomacy

The mutual trust that emerged with the end of the Cold War was severely shaken a few years later by NATO's decision to expand to the east. Russia had no option but to draw its own conclusions from that.

We had 10 years after the Cold War to build a new world order and yet we squandered them. The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently. Every US president has to have a war.

Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.

Sometimes ... when you stand face to face with someone, you cannot see his face. (Following summit meeting with Ronald Reagan)

I have good relationships with Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden and especially Richard Holbrooke - he is my teacher. I learned a lot of great things from him.

For heaven's sake, if you don't know someone's name, just pretend you do. Do that thing everyone else does, where you vaguely say, "Nice to see you!" and make weak eye contact.

We are de facto diplomats who have to be able to communicate with anyone. But this doesn't mean we are doormats.

We all know it's safer to beat up on people who won't retaliate,' he told her, 'but it's a quick way to lose friends. You need to find ways of dealing with confrontation when it happens.

Syria and Iran have always had a pretty tight relationship, and it looks to me like they just cooked up a press release to put out to sort of restate the obvious. They're both problem countries we know that. And this doesn't change anything.

There is a different future that is available to North Korea, if they choose differently.

Any agreement that you have isn't going to be based on North Korea's intentions or trust.

Well, first of all, we now have everybody with the exception of India, Pakistan, and Israel, and I don't think these three countries are going to join by simply providing them an incentive, in terms of technology.

There is a positive and personal relationship between the Egyptian people and the Syrian people.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles but today it means getting along with people.

Fidel, como las naciones, no tiene amigos, sólo tiene intereses.

ni el líder cubano reitera su condena a la intentona golpista contra Carlos Andrés Pérez, un presidente que fue su gran aliado y llegó a ser su amigo.

La política siempre ha sido el arte del compromiso, pero ahora parece haberse convertido en el arte de impedir que se logren acuerdos.

Rechazamos el sostenido deterioro de las relaciones internacionales con nuestros aliados tradicionales, a cambio de buscar vínculos con gobiernos no democráticos. Por estas y muchas otras razones exigimos la dimisión del presidente, por fascista y totalitario y por ser una amenaza para la democracia y la soberanía de Venezuela.

el mundo ha entrado en una «era posthegemónica» en la que «ninguna nación tiene la capacidad de imponer su voluntad a las demás de forma permanente ni sustancial».

una política exterior con ambiciones regionales, centrada solo en los vecinos inmediatos, está hoy al alcance de más países; los que no aprovechen esa oportunidad, se quedarán atrás.

La idea es que intentar la búsqueda de acuerdos —y la actuación conjunta— entre un número pequeño de países tiene más posibilidades de tener un efecto significativo que buscar la coordinación de, por ejemplo, ciento noventa países.

un ejército moderno y de gran tamaño ya no basta para garantizar que un país pueda alcanzar sus objetivos estratégicos.

Tout petit prince a des ambassadeurs, Tout marquis veut avoir des pages.

My attitude towards peace does not depend on which war we are discussing. I think that words should do the work of bombs.