Chuck Hagel Quotes

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

In these days of intimate relations, of economic stress and of intense desire to protect national interests and advance national opportunity, the treatment of questions which, from a legal standpoint, are domestic, often seriously affects international relations. The principle, each nation for itself to the full extent of its powers, is the principle of war, not of peace.

Foreign policy must be about priorities. The United States cannot do everything everywhere.

I have always thought that foreign-policy idealism has to be tempered with realism.

I challenge anybody to say that I wouldn't know how to approach foreign policy because, unlike some of the other people, I at least have a foreign policy philosophy, which is an extension of the Reagan philosophy. Peace through strength, and my philosophy is peace through strength and clarity.

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

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

The principles that should guide American foreign policy are simple: the world is safer when America leads, only strength ensures peace and freedom, and America must stand with its allies and challenge its adversaries.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

The real danger to Britain is a foreign policy that is isolationist in Europe and therefore weak in the rest of the world.

Kneejerk interventionism or kneejerk isolationism is the wrong course for Britain.

Foreign Policy has to be less foreign.

You always have more than one goal in foreign policy.

Public diplomacy, practiced in harmony with traditional diplomacy, will enable us to advance our interest, to protect our security, and to continue to provide the moral basis for our leadership in the world.

Foreign policy involves a good deal of domestic policy.

The United States has become geopolitically hobbled seemingly interested in grand strategic initiatives or transformative diplomacy, as its attention constantly dances from one crisis to another.

Even allies don’t share every single interest that you have. That’s a law of nature in the international system. They will tell you most of what you need to know but there may be some things that they don’t tell you that you need to know in order to formulate your policy as wisely as you can.

I work on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees to keep us safe at home and strong in the world.

In the aftermath of September 11, it has been made clear to us that our foreign policy can no longer afford to narrowly focus on short-term benefits. For our nation's long-term security, we must be active in promoting American values abroad through our foreign policy.

The American people deserve an honest assessment of the state of our foreign affairs.

America needs a bipartisan foreign policy that is predictable, pragmatic, and understandable.

Foreign policy simply cannot be judged by today's headlines that chalk up victories and defeats like so many box scores in the sports sections.

We have to return to a foreign policy of restraint, one that develops our capabilities and our potential in communities across America, and not become bogged down in unwinnable conflicts that lead to greater resentment of the United States, and that don't advance American interests.

It is our historical experience, that Hungary can only live in wealth and safety if Berlin, Moscow, and Ankara are on our side and also interested in our success - even if we do not always agree on certain questions.

You cannot treat with all the world at once.