Kathryn Minshew Quotes

My father was a Foreign Service officer, a diplomat and an Arabist who spent virtually all his career in the Near East, as it was called in the State Department. So I spent most of my childhood among the Israelis and the Arabs of Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

I didn't serve on a committee that dealt with foreign policy.

The very phrase 'foreign affairs' makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.

I'd like to be the ambassador to the Bahamas.

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

The job of a diplomat is to be the eyes and the ears of the country he or she is representing.

People tend to leave foreign affairs to governments because they think the leaders of government have all the information and know better.

When I traveled as secretary of state, I was deluged with thick briefing books full of information about the politics, economy, and culture of each destination, so those took up most of my reading time.

Like a lot of New Yorkers, I assumed that I knew all about the U.N. I was shocked to find out it's not like anything I had in mind. There are only six languages accepted there. It's considered international territory.

My father's a diplomat. He speaks Russian.

I've been involved in and out of the U.N. for many years - in fact my first internship was in 1971, so it goes back a couple of years!

The National Security Council's real role is to coordinate the various activities of the government of the United States in the furtherance of American foreign policy.

In the United States, there is a broadly shared view that the U.N. is one of many potential instruments to advance U.S. issues, and we have to decide whether a particular issue is best done through the U.N. or best done through some other mechanism.

I'm a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

I spend every day up at the United Nations where I have to interact with 192 other countries. I know how well the United States is viewed.

We need a president who's fluent in at least one language.

Ambassadors are, by definition, foreign bodies.

I've been to China and Russia, and I don't know anything about Chinese or Soviet relations.

I have a great relationship with the Mexican people.

In order to be a diplomat, one must speak a number of languages, including doubletalk.

Its easy for a country to talk about global affairs but unless you can do something about it, you are not a player.

Diplomacy is a frequently neglected imperative.

Congress cannot and should not run foreign policy.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

…though the American government did much to encourage the organs of the League, the fact that it stood aside, sharing neither the rights nor the duties of the League powers, was a fatal handicap to joint action.