Leslie H. Gelb Quotes

Bipartisanship is like marriage. It takes two to make it work. It only takes one to make it a failure. The President has been playing politics with foreign policy.

Listen to others. Do not conduct foreign policy only according to your own ideology. Do not conduct foreign policy only with an eye on domestic politics.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

Americans tend to go for it all. In international politics you can’t have it all. You have to compromise.

You do not build a foreign policy based on one man.

I like to stand up to the Americans. It’s popular, but you have to be very careful because they’re our friends.

The art of foreign policy is to help guide the inevitable.

The management of a balance of power is a permanent undertaking, not an exertion that has a foreseeable end.

Negotiations are the most essential tool of statecraft.

We had to avoid wounding Austria too severely; we had to avoid leaving behind in her any unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge; we ought rather to reserve the possibility of becoming friends again with our adversary of the moment, and in any case to regard the Austrian state as a piece on the European chessboard and the renewal of friendly relations as a move open to us. If Austria were severely injured, she would become the ally of France and of every other opponent of ours; she would even sacrifice her anti-Russian interests for the sake of revenge on Prussia.

U. S. Foreign Policy is usually largely reactive.

We must want peace, but not be afraid of war because our fear of war made us compromise during these past few years with our principles and our standards.

Compromise is the oil that makes government go.

When a rising power confronts a ruling power, bad things usually happen.... This is what happens when an extablished entity faces an upstart.... To avoid a disasterous clash like war, both parties have to make an adjustment, but the ruling power has to make more painful adjustments.

Diplomacy and coalition-building are hard work and not easy for any president.

[Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is an adherent of realpolitik. He knows that international relations are not built on the strength of unilateral demands, but on solutions that are in everybody's best interest.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

I remain committed to a balanced policy, which will protect our national interests both on our eastern border - I mean with Russia - and of course with the European Union.

The United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

Foreign policy is effectively the assertion of many individual countries intersecting on the global marketplace. And you have to figure out how to get your interest served in a way that meets the interests and needs of these other folks.

Although we are very strong, we are pursuing a very calculating and moderate policy. We prefer a political solution and are managing the situation accordingly.