Foreign Policy Quotes - Page 23

• The 'realist' conception of continuing old-fashioned 'balance of power' politics may have been well founded in the past, but it is inconsistent with our increasing interdependent world. On moral grounds alone there can be no justification for the 20th century level of killing. To settle disputes without violence must become the primary goal of foreign policy for every nation.

  Robert McNamara

  Past, Goal, Balance

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• In America, much foreign policy seems contrived to be an exercise in political theory with no attention to history whatsoever. Yet there's a great reverence for history - though it's history as thumb-sucking, security blanket-nibbling self-congratulation.

  Simon Schama

  Congratulations, Exercise, Self

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• America's heart and soul is more embedded in our love of liberty, self-reliance, and tolerance than by our foreign policy, driven by powerful special interests with little regard for the Constitution.

  Ron Paul

  Powerful, Heart, Self

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• I don't just denounce suicide bombers. I denounce those governments which use indiscriminate slaughter to advance their foreign policy.

  Ken Livingstone

  Suicide, Government, Bombers

  "London mayor: West created terror", www.cnn.com. July 20, 2005.

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• I hope we shall prove how much happier for man the Quaker policy is, and that the life of the feeder is better than that of the fighter; and it is some consolation that the desolation by these maniacs of one part of the earth is the means of improving it in other parts. Let the latter be our office, and let us milk the cow, while the Russian holds her by the horns, and the Turk by the tail.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Men, Office

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.245

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

  Robert Kagan

  Baseball, Hitting, Failing

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• Will I criticize Hillary Clinton on her position of TPP, or the lack of position? Will I criticize her on her views of Wall Street? Will I criticize her on foreign policy? That's what democracy is about, but taking cheap shots at people, making it personal, I don't think that's what politics should be about.

  Bernie Sanders

  Wall, Thinking, Views

  "Reliable Sources" with Brian Stelter, cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com. May 24, 2015.

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• I don't think that experience is a very useful or convincing attribute for a sensible foreign policy. Henry Kissinger had a lot of experience.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Henry Kissinger, Attributes

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• My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.

  George Washington

  Independent, Government, Honor

  George Washington (1989). “Maxims of George Washington: Political, Military, Social, Moral, and Religious”, Mount Vernon Ladies Assn of the

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• Bill Clinton, who, to his credit, has established a clear and consistent foreign policy, which is as follows: Whenever the president of the United States gets anywhere near any foreign head of state, living or dead, he gives that leader a big old hug. This has proven to be an effective way to get foreign leaders to do what we want: Many heads of state are willing to sign any random document that President Clinton thrusts in front of them, without reading it, just so he will stop embracing them.

  Dave Barry

  Reading, Giving, Leader

  Dave Barry (2009). “Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus”, p.46, Ballantine Books

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• In a proper pub everyone there is potentially, if not a lifelong friend, at least someone to lure into an argument about foreign policy or the Red Sox.

  Barbara Holland

  Red, Argument, Pubs

  Barbara Holland (2008). “The Joy of Drinking”, p.23, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Soviet Union foreign policy is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and the key is Russian nationalism.

  Winston Churchill

  Keys, Unions, Riddle

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• I focus most of my attention on Hillary Clinton and her disastrous policies. I mean, there's a real danger in this election. Electing Hillary Clinton in an era where we now are so pessimistic about the future, would double down on [Barack] Obama economics and a failed foreign policy - so most of my attention is about my record and about defeating Hillary Clinton.

  Jeb Bush

  Real, Mean, Focus

  "RNC chair blasts CNBC's 'crap sandwich' debate; Bush, Kasich call out GOP rivals". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. October 29, 2015.

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• There should be full engagement to protect our country from a grave threat, which is the weakest foreign policy since Jimmy Carter.

  Jeb Bush

  Country, Engagement, Should

  "RNC chair blasts CNBC's 'crap sandwich' debate; Bush, Kasich call out GOP rivals". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. October 29, 2015.

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• Pakistan is, I always feel, hopeful. You know, our system of government is not, and the system of foreign policy whereby we do whatever is asked of us as long as the price is right only proves to fundamentalist outfits and to militant groups that when we talk of things like democracy, when we talk of things like foreign policy, what we're really talking about is being pro-American.

  Fatima Bhutto

  Government, Talking, Long

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• I don't think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of Iraq led to the massive level of instability that we're seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States.

  Bernie Sanders

  Thinking, Iraq, Levels

  Source: www.complex.com

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• Any time someone says "that's it, I'm leaving" I ask them whether they'd prefer to live under US domestic policy, or US foreign policy. As bad as things get inside an empire, they're usually worse in the protectorates.

  Jamie Zawinski

  Leaving, Empires, Asks

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• Bush humble foreign policy was hijacked into nation-building.

  Ron Paul

  Humble, Building, Nations

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• There is nothing puzzling ... about America's gratuitously aggressive foreign policy or about the oligarchs' successful efforts to drag the Republic into five wars. What an aggressive foreign policy accomplishes by slow degrees, a state of war accomplishes in a trice. Overnight [war] kills reform, overnight it transforms insurgents into traitors and the Republic into an imperiled realm. Overnight it strangles free politics, distracts and overawes the citizenry. Overnight it blasts public hope.

  Walter Karp

  War, Successful, America

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• I'm going to be bringing people into the public diplomacy function of the department who are going to change from just selling us in the old USIA way to really branding foreign policy, branding the department, marketing the department, marketing American values to the world and not just putting out pamphlets.

  Colin Powell

  People, Marketing, World

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• We National Socialists must hold unflinchingly to our aim in foreign policy, namely to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitles on this earth. And this action is the only one which, before God and or German posterity, would make any sacrifice of blood seem justified: before God, since we have been put on this earth with the mission of eternal struggle for our daily bread.

  Adolf Hitler

  Struggle, Sacrifice, Land

  Adolf Hitler (1943). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• No foreign policy will stick unless the American people are behind it. And unless Congress understands it. And unless Congress understands it, the American people aren't going to understand it.

  W. Averell Harriman

  People, Sticks, Congress

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• [America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

  John Quincy Adams

  Practice, America, Independence

  John Quincy Adams (1965). “John Quincy Adams and American continental empire: letters, papers and speeches”, Chicago, Quadrangle Books

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• Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!

  Alexander Hamilton

  Greatness, Together, Connections

  The Federalist no. 11 (1788)

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• Every Republican has a one-liner on ObamaCare. I've got detailed plans on energy independence, on school choice, on health care, on foreign policy. They all hire somebody to write their plans. They can borrow mine. I've actually got ideas. Enough with the slick talkers. Let's elect somebody that's done something.

  Bobby Jindal

  School, Writing, Ideas

  "Bobby Jindal opens up about his 2016 presidential run on 'Hannity'". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. July 3, 2015.

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