Robert D. Kaplan Quotes

The U.N. is much more than the case of Iraq.

The situation that exists among nations in their relations to one another is such that it tempts even those who ordinarily come far short of cynicism to say that there is no connection between ethics and international relations.

So I've gone in and out of the U.N., working on counter-terrorism, on U.N. reform, on peacekeeping, peace and security issues, many things through the years but always with a strong interest in humanitarian issues, and human rights issues as well.

It is one thing to be against unilateralism and against nonhumanitarian interventionism - but it is quite another thing to be against humanitarian interventionism.

The U.S. government engages with many countries around the world in official dialogues on human rights.

Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority.

Stability is a reasonable foreign policy goal, but not at the expense of human rights.

I do think that every super power on the globe has a very poor record on human rights.

It's important that all around the globe that the United States is pursuing the most effective foreign policy possible.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

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

I think clearly the United States, as well as other western nations, should stand by their commitments to human rights and democracy and should try to influence other countries to move in that direction.

We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of.

Unilateral preemption should not in any way be the model for how we conduct international relations.

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

I've been quite involved in a lot of U.N. operations over the years. I was a U.N. observer at the East Timor referendum in 2000. I've been very involved in that for a long time.

And, perhaps most importantly, regional conflicts will again and again confront us with a cruel choice between costly engagement and costly indifference.

Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.

I think no one knows what humanitarian intervention means. If I were a person who was non-American, I would think humanitarian intervention is just another name for United States imperialism.

Wars can be resolved. Human rights atrocities can be stopped. We just have to apply the right policies.

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

The Czech Republic is a dynamic United Nations Member State, active on the Human Rights Council, contributing to the peaceful settlement of disputes, and helping other countries to achieve a democratic transition.

The matter of international relations is very subtle and exquisite.

If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely that military intervention can seem simple but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences.

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.