Dean Acheson Quotes

The way you change foreign policy is by raising the domestic political cost of the policy.

Bush doesn't present himself as a realpolitik politician.

I don't think I will ever write about politics or foreign policy. I feel like there is so much good writing in those areas that I have little to add. I also like to steer clear of writing about people whom I do not personally like.

American presidents always avoid shaking hands with brutal dictators, except when it's advantageous to do so.

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

Mr. Obama's approach to engagement to some degree makes him dependent on people who wish neither him nor America well. This doesn't have to end badly and I hope that it doesn't - but it's not an ideal position after one's first year in power.

Despite an unqualified understanding that U.S. national security was inextricably bound up with Britain's survival, F.D.R. knew that his reelection in part rested on the hope that he would keep the country out of war.

One of the things about politics, when you're actually there, you realize, you're on a high wire and there is no net under you. On any given day, your campaign can implode for something that happens inadvertently or even intentionally.

In a sensitive matter, where its own ignorance could scarcely have been greater, Congress would have been better advised to leave the conduct of foreign policy in the hands of those who have been constitutionally charged with it.

… realpolitik

The Secretary of State has always stood as much alone as the historian. Required to look far ahead and around him, he measures forces unknown to party managers, and has found Congress more or less hostile since Congress first sat.

Foreign policy helps incumbents.

Public opinion in Britain demanded that we should make representations; we did so, to the cost of British material interests.

The Navy and the foreign office had to find the argument to support the action; it was anxious work.

The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government.

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.

U. S. Presidents have to play 3-dimensional chess. Every move on the horizontal board against an international adversary simultaneously moves a piece on the vertical board of domestic politics.

In politics, reality is that which is unseen. Politics is the art of combining a nation’s diverse or opposing factors to the benefit of its domestic well-being, and of saving the country from the open enmity or covetous friendship of other nations.

Too close and unthinking an allegiance to Washington has sometimes got British governments into trouble.

Take a lesson from President Obama, and don't go around Congress. When given the opportunity to work with lawmakers on the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, Obama chose to forgo the hard fight of treaty ratification and instead ruled by executive order. And now the United States is party to neither pact.

As the United States Congress considers military intervention in Syria, per President Obama's request, I think it's important to be very honest about what we are considering.

On the issue of Iraq, it is my hope, and my challenge to my colleagues, that our debate will be based on what is best for the future of our nation and for Iraq, not what's best for a political party or presidential campaign.

There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. And maintaining that balance is the greatest challenge that we in the West, including the Federal Republic of Germany, have to face because it's many times a very difficult decision-making process.

Hillary's explanation of the Libyan action to Congress was so good, I wonder who explained it to her?

...foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.