Chuck Hagel Quotes

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

Wishful thinking won't make the Palestinians an Israeli peace partner, no matter how much President Barack Obama pressures Israel to make concessions; caustically mocking Putin's worldview won't make it any less real or mitigate the Russian threat.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

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

The United States has become geopolitically hobbled seemingly interested in grand strategic initiatives or transformative diplomacy, as its attention constantly dances from one crisis to another.

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

One of the lessons learned in the Middle East is to never try to anticipate the other side's moves.

Foreign policy is about the execution of ideas as much as their formulation.

Foreign policy is painstakingly difficult, and if there is to be anything gained from the experience in Libya, it is how not to conduct world affairs.

I do not see it as desirable for South Korea to take the back seat and watch discussions between the U.S. and China.

In foreign policy, even if you hold high office, you can't be sure what the effects will be of the things you do.

I don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do. But there's a good chance I won't.

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.

I'm not sure you can do anything quickly or easily with the North.

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.

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

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.

I think if you're going to master policy, especially world affairs, you've got to know history.

By dedicating so much concentration to the issue of security, bilateral matters pass to a secondary level.

Of course the United States and Russia have different interests. Nevertheless, both are strategic partners.

You'd better believe that Putin sees that in Syria, Obama draws a red line and ignores the red line.

Pat Roberts and I both feel very strongly that when we get to Iran, that we can't make the same mistakes. We have to ask the questions, the hard questions before, not afterwards, and get the right intelligence.

Foreign policy is consumed with momentary crises —– often created by failing states and violent groups. But in the long run, he future is shaped by winners, not noisy losers.