Walker Downer Hines Quotes

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

Foreign policy today is economics.

Everybody pursues their national interests. The only one who gets blamed for it is the United States.

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

President Obama, like every other leader on Earth, is still going to be looking out for national and economic interests. States don't cease to be states overnight just because they get a great visionary as their new president.

The artificial separation of politics and culture is nowhere more pronounced than in the discourse of foreign policy and international affairs.

The internal affairs of other countries has a big impact on American interests.

Foreign policy is about choosing from nasty options.

World politics is not a kindergarten.

In most nations, public opinion is in revolt against foreign policy.

Are we Uncle Sam or Uncle Sucker?

Power is the true reserve currency in international affairs.

Grand strategies are not nearly so important as grand strategists like to think, because countries tend to be judged by their actions, not on their words…. History shows that grand strategies do not alter the trajectory of great power politics all that much.

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth.

Anti-Western resentment and Russian patriotism appear particularly pronounced in Putin’s personality and life experiences, but a different Russian government not run by former KGB types would still be confronted with the challenge of weakness vis-à-vis the West and the desire for a special role in the world. Russia’s foreign policy orientation, in other words, is as much a condition as a choice. But if Russian elites could somehow redefine their sense of exceptionalism and put aside their unwinnable competition with the West, they could set their country on a less costly, more promising course.

Maybe 'America first' means also that you have to deal with America first.

I think when you have so many people working for American-based think tanks and American-based defense companies, there is always going to be a bent towards proposing American-led solutions for foreign problems. People get paid big money in Washington to come up with ways that America can fix problems overseas, and they are not always right.

No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals

The point is that in any country, including the United States, may be in the United States even more often than in any other country, foreign policy is used for internal political struggle.

Foreign policy is conducted for the convenience and enjoyment of people in Washington.

We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington.

Israeli interests are not necessarily in harmony with the American interests.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

I remain committed to a balanced policy, which will protect our national interests both on our eastern border - I mean with Russia - and of course with the European Union.