Edwin M. Borchard Quotes

Peacemaking and peacekeeping should run in parallel.

American foreign policy, for all its shortcomings, has underpinned political stability around the world.

We try very quickly to show that we are not at war with the Iraqi people. We're trying to deal with the people who are indeed themselves at war with the Iraqi people.

We must devise what could be described as a new containment … of the various forms of violence and chaos that a world no longer dominated by the Cold War will entail.

If we should come to an issue with the world, let us keep it off as long as possible.

... the greatest moral victory in the history of civilization if it actually keeps out of a war.

But in a world of high tension and disorder, in a world where stable civilization is actually threatened, it becomes the responsibility of each nation which strives for peace at home and peace with and among others to be strong enough to assure the observance of those fundamentals of peaceful solution of conflicts which are the only ultimate basis for orderly existence.

One war at a time.

Frankly, Senators, if nations may not safely agree to respect each other’s rights, and may not agree to confer if one party to the compact threatens trespass, or may not agree to advise if one party to the pact is threatened by an outside power, then all concerted efforts to tranquilize the world and stabilize peace must be flung to the winds. Either these treaties must have your cordial sanction, or every proclaimed desire to promote peace and prevent war becomes a hollow mockery

Our shared historical experiences led myself and Mitterrand to the decision that we must do everything to prevent further wars.

I don't want to force the peacekeeping nations to feel like I'm pushing them out.

Compulsory arbitration is a practical instrument of pacification and, as such, it can and should be enacted by the Hague Conference.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

My actions to promote peace, the mediation missions which I carried out during many conflicts, which very often occurred between brothers of the same country, are not driven by any ulterior motives or any calculations based on personal ambitions.

On the other hand, the waging of peace as a science, as an art, is in its infancy. But we can trace its growth, its steady progress, and the time will come when there will be particular individuals designated to assume responsibility for and leadership of this movement.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

The only foreign policy advice I heard from China was when they said to Sudan, 'Don't go back to war.' That's all they said. They didn't push anything else.

When the world lacks muscular and wise American leadership, it devolves into total chaos, which, in turn, produces unspeakable evils.

Winning the peace is harder than winning the war.

Waging war we understand, but not waging peace, or at any rate less consciously so.

Intervention continues to be a prominent dimension of the post-cold war world.

Everyone is interested in war, in that people don't want it to happen. I'm much more interested in peace than in war but it's important to understand why we fight.

The United Nations system is still the best instrument for making the world less fragile.

Let us return, however, to the League of Nations. To create an organization which is in a position to protect peace in this world of conflicting interests and egotistic wills is a frighteningly difficult task.

Western powers remain imprisoned by the idea that the world is a dangerous place, that it needs to be managed, and that they are called upon to do the managing.