David Grange Quotes

People think that it only takes an American decision to solve this or that problem [in foreign affairs].

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

France will be heeded if it has a message to convey.

Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations.

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

Legislation that would withhold funding for the United Nations is fundamentally flawed in concept and practice, sets us back, is self-defeating, and doesn't work.

There is no such thing as the United Nations.

If the United States leads a multinational force into Iraq without United Nations backing, Canada should fight beside its neighbour. We've gone from being a middle power to a muddle power on this one.

The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer.

If governments do not want to work with the U.N. and the international organizations, there is a limit to what you can do. And there is also a limit to patience.

You cannot have individual foreign policy. You cannot have celebrity foreign policy.

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

…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.

International institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

The United States is necessary for the solution to many problems in the world today. However, we are no longer sufficient..

Both Russia and the United States are struggling to define their proper roles in the world.

I've served on the International Relations Committee.

My observation on most people in national governments is that they have very little interest in and very little knowledge of the multinational institutions.

And being in the EU has given Britain a stronger voice in the world. Britain leads in Europe, from trade to climate change, from good governance to debt relief for the poorest nations, and in turn Europe helps to lead the world.

Americans in general, I think, don't understand the weight and gravity of foreign policy and how to engage the world at large.

We have not been a normal country when it comes to engagement in the world.

It's important that all around the globe that the United States is pursuing the most effective foreign policy possible.

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!