SAMANTHA POWER

I happen to miss the Constitution; I thought it was a good document.

Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.

The economic dynamic in Zimbabwe is perversely robust: while ordinary people suffer, black-market dealers and people with foreign bank accounts prosper, making them powerful stakeholders in the perpetuation of devastating economic policies.

All we talk about is 'Islamic terrorism.' If the two words are associated for long enough it's obviously going to have an effect on how people think about Muslims.

I believe the United States is the greatest country on Earth. I really do.

Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a general shrinking of the democratic space.

The performance of international institutions will be symptomatic of the domestic political priorities of influential member states. International institutions don't really have a life and a mind of their own.

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush, who had shirked military service, succeeded in presenting himself as more reliable on national security than Al Gore.

Since 9/11, there has been a huge leap in people wanting to get personally involved in public service and international affairs.

The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.

I like to think that as I get older I'm getting better at spending time with people who have qualities that make them worth spending time with.

Brokenness is the operative issue of our time - broken souls, broken hearts, broken places.

Over the years, Western governments have been criticized for working with foreign police who have proved abusive or corrupt.

When I became director of CIA, it was just clear to me intuitively, without a whole lot of science behind it, that we had expanded rapidly and inefficiently. So I arbitrarily picked a number, 10 percent, and I said over the next 12 months, we are going to reduce our reliance on contractors by 10 percent.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.

What is most needed in Darfur is an international peacekeeping and protection presence, and this is what the Sudanese government most wants to avoid.

When it came to the Vietnam War, Mr. McNamara was an early advocate of escalation but came to realize the flaws in the American approach earlier than many of his colleagues. Yet in public, he continued to defend the war.

India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability.

I think I would like the sort of job where you can work away in obscurity to try and improve things, without being caught up in the political maelstrom.

International institutions are composed of governments. Governments control their own military forces and police.

American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term.

Some anti-Americanism derives simply from our being a colossus that bestrides the earth. But much anti-Americanism derives from the role U.S. political, economic and military power has played in denying such freedoms to others.

I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for. That can encompass our elected officials' adherence to law and our country's return to the Geneva Conventions.

We know that often holding those who have carried out mass atrocities accountable is at times our best tool to prevent future atrocities.

When confronting most crises, whether historic or contemporary, aid agencies generally muddle along on a case-by-case basis. They weigh insufficient information, extrapolate somewhat blindly about long-term pros and cons, and reluctantly arrive at decisions meant to do the most good and the least harm.