John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

Turkey can be a bridge to regimes and actions the United States can't reach. Turkey can talk to people the United States can't talk to.

A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.

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

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

And Israel, being a tiny, small country, of course has interest to strengthen - we have interest to strengthen our relations with other countries, mostly countries that were hostile for many, many years.

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

The United States is a strong and ardent ally of Israel. The fact of the matter is that friends can disagree. I think what's important is that world leaders are able to sit down with one another, have frank conversations and move forward.

Such highly qualitative leadership is demanded especially in the realm of the fostering of right international relations. Here the demand is simply irresistible.

I don’t talk to countries that exhibit bad behavior.

We won’t be very successful with the Chinese leadership [on human rights issues] if we’re in their face all the time.

Foreign policy matters cannot be intelligently decided in a large general meeting.

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

Dr. Kissinger is a man you can talk to.

Statecraft, as these cases convincingly illustrate, is demanding and often exhausting work. There are risks, and success is not guaranteed. It requires major governmental and political resources and the same kind of hourly, year-round planning and execution as the conduct of a military campaign.

Foreign policy is like plumbing. You never notice it till it breaks and then all hell breaks loose.

Even allies don’t share every single interest that you have. That’s a law of nature in the international system. They will tell you most of what you need to know but there may be some things that they don’t tell you that you need to know in order to formulate your policy as wisely as you can.

I'm resolved to be active on diplomacy as Japan further develops relationships based on trust and cooperation with countries including the U.S.

In the '80s, we at least had the idea of diplomacy.

Relations between countries are built on values and interests and many other things, but at the end of the day, leaders are also only human beings.

Diplomacy can and will matter; little is inevitable in international relations.

Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good.

It was a mistake. I was wrong, but I discovered this many years later. I was acting on the basis of this mandate given me by the most important leaders of the world: President Bush's father, prime minister of France, President Mitterand, the Chinese, everybody.

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

No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.

Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.