Madeleine Albright Quotes

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

Whether you're dealing with your allies in Europe or you're dealing with a resurgent Russia, whether you're dealing with Iran or North Korea, you have to use the whole panoply of national tools of power to deal with the challenges the world faces.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done

Very near the heart of all foreign affairs is the relationship between policy and military power.

The voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long.

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

There are two things that are very expensive in international relations: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail

Soft power … cannot accomplish much in the absence of a willingness to use hard power.

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.

Not every threat to America's national interests can be addressed with military power.

I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy.

We have treated our most serious adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea, in the most juvenile manner - by giving them the silent treatment. In so doing, we have weakened, not strengthened, our bargaining position and our leadership.

We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America's friends from her enemies, and recognizes the true threats that we face.

Colin Powell has said over the years that Saddam Hussein is like a toothache. It recurs from time to time, and you just have to live with it. At other times, he's compared Saddam Hussein to a kidney stone that will eventually pass. But he has never said, 'You have to operate and take out the kidney stone.'

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.

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

I do not believe that diplomacy equals weakness…. If you are going to use force you better make sure that it is effective.

Great powers engage.

In order to keep the peace you’ve got to have the authorization to use force.

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

You can't build a foreign policy on the presence of an individual [a particular foreign leader].

Diplomacy and force are two sides of the same coin.

All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.

You can't get a diplomatic solution unless behind that, is the threat of force.

A great power that uses force far less than vital interests, and that does so frequently or with a short fuse, risks mobilizing other states to join ranks to balance against it.