Diplomacy Quotes - Page 8

• But for us, in Syria, we have principles. We'll do anything to prevent the region from another crazy war. It's not only Syria. Because it will start in Syria.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Crazy, Spring, War

  "Assad and Obama on Syria's civil war". "60 Minutes" with Charlie Rose, www.cbsnews.com. September 15, 2013.

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• Geopolitics is all about leverage. We cannot make ourselves safer abroad unless we change our behavior at home.

  Thomas Friedman

  Home, Behavior, Geopolitics

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• Our nation must engage with the rest of the world. But to be successful, we must listen. Our interaction with the world must be a conversation, not a monologue... these exchanges are a strategic pillar of our nation's public diplomacy.

  Dina Powell

  Successful, Presidential, Pillars

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• Create the impression of endless willingness to compromise and you almost invite deadlines. That's the challenge we now have in North Korea and have had in North Korea for 10 years. In this sense, diplomacy and foreign policy and other elements of political activity have to be closely linked and have to be understood by the negotiators

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Business, Korea, Years

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• The ongoing war in Afghanistan is being imposed on us, and Afghans are being sacrificed in it for someone else's interests. We are not blocking the interests of the United States or other major powers. But we are demanding that if you consider Afghanistan the place from which to advance your interests, then you should also pay attention to Afghanistan's interests.

  Hamid Karzai

  Block, War, Reality

  "Interview: Karzai Says He'll Agree To Deal Once The U.S. Meets His Demands". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview, www.rferl.org. November 26, 2013.

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• Now, here's a good question: should serious people focus on global political instability - terrorism, failing states, nuclear weapons - or should we focus on global climate instability - droughts, floods, extreme weather? Here's the correct answer: yes, both, because climate disruption will make every other national security problem worse.

  Van Jones

  Leadership, Nature, Reality

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• Managers at [the nuclear] sector should know that we need diplomacy and not slogans, .. This [is] where we should use all our leverages with patience and wisdom, without provocation and slogans that can give pretexts to the enemies.

  Bill Vaughan

  Giving, Enemy, Needs

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• First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn't mean they're wrong.

  Steven Van Zandt

  Confused, Party, Mean

  "Debt Ceiling? What Debt Ceiling?" by Steven Van Zandt, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 1, 2011.

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• War is always a failure. It means we've failed in diplomacy and we've failed in talking to one another.

  Martin Firrell

  War, Mean, Talking

  Text projections onto the Guards Chapel, Household Division of the British Army, London, www.martinfirrell.com. November 2009.

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• And, as a consequence of the pressure that we've applied over the last couple of weeks, we have Syria -- for the first time -- acknowledging that it has chemical weapons, agreeing to join the convention that prohibits the use of chemical weapons, and the Russians -- their primary sponsors -- saying that they will push Syria to get all of their chemical weapons out. The distance that we've traveled over these couple of weeks is remarkable.

  Barack Obama

  Couple, Distance, Justice

  "Full Transcript: President Obama Speaks Exclusively to George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week'". "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, abcnews.go.com. September 15, 2013.

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• Ultimately, only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program. As President and Commander in Chief, I will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict.

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, Wisdom, Spring

  "Obama admits Israel has good reason for scepticism over Iran nuclear deal" by Dan Roberts, www.theguardian.com. November 25, 2013.

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• The anchors of the Arab consensus have long been Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and both are now weakened forces in Arab politics and diplomacy.

  Elliott Abrams

  Egypt, Anchors, Long

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• You know, we did a good job in containing the Soviet Union, but we made a lot of mistakes, we supported really nasty guys, we did some things that we are not particularly proud of, from Latin America to Southeast Asia, but we did have a kind of overarching framework about what we were trying to do that did lead to the defeat of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Communism. That was our objective. We achieved it.

  Hillary Clinton

  Leadership, Jobs, Latin

  "Hillary Clinton: 'Failure' to Help Syrian Rebels Led to the Rise of ISIS". Interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, www.theatlantic.com. August 10, 2014.

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• Congress needs to send a strong signal that direct communication with the leader of the free world is a privilege, particularly for a regime that has been as hostile as Iran has been towards America for more than three decades. President Rouhani needs to take these two simple steps to demonstrate good faith before any further discussions.

  Ted Cruz

  Leadership, Strong, Spring

  "Cruz praises Obama on Iran" by Burgess Everett, www.politico.com. September 28, 2013.

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• Dictating to dictators doesn't work; they are congenitally delusional about their own indispensability.

  Joe Klein

  Dictator, Delusional, Dictating

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• The well of public opinion has been well and truly poisoned by the Iraq episode.

  David Cameron

  Spring, Iraq, History

  "MPs vote down military intervention in Syria: Politics live blog" by Andrew Sparrow, www.theguardian.com. August 29, 2013.

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• [Putin] is a bully. And bullies only understand when we punch them in the nose, but we need to do that economically.

  Kelly Ayotte

  Leadership, Money, Reality

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• By unleashing an active diplomacy on its nuclear activities, Iran has effectively neutralized the European and US policies,.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Iran, Nuclear, Unleashing

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• Our diplomacy ended up giving a bad conscience to an international community capable only of expressing noble sentiments while doing nothing, .. So how can one explain that we are today investigating an action our country should be proud of?.

  Alain Juppe

  Country, Giving, Community

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• What we (U.S.) have done, is undertaken diplomacy through public assertions that tend to alienate everyone.

  John Prendergast

  Done, Assertion

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• Russia is actively using gas diplomacy for its expansion over the ex-Soviet space in a bid to become a regional superpower.

  Lilia Shevtsova

  Russia, Space, Expansion

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• Iran is five to 10 years away from having a nuclear weapon. We have time to try diplomacy.

  Joseph Cirincione

  Iran, Years, Trying

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• The upper hand is with those who are pushing regime change rather than those who are advocating more diplomacy.

  Richard N. Haass

  Hands, Upper Hand, Pushing

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• Diplomacy matters. Burden-sharing matters. Follow-through matters. And yes, sustaining the peace is harder, more complex and often costlier than winning the war itself. No matter the surge of momentary machismo -- as gratifying as it may be for some -- it's short-sighted and wrong to simply go it alone.

  Dick Gephardt

  War, Winning, May

  "Daily MoJo", www.motherjones.com. July 23, 2003.

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• As in the game of billiards, the balls are constantly producing effects from mere chance, which the most skillful player could neither execute nor foresee, but which, when they do happen, serve mainly to teach him how much he has still to learn; so it is in the most profound and complicated game of politics and diplomacy. In both cases, we can only regulate our play by what we have seen, rather than by what we have hoped; and by what we have experienced, rather than by what we have expected.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Player, Games, Profound

  Lacon: or many things in afew words (p. 345)

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