Mark Leonard Quotes

This is strictly personal opinion, not company policy, but I do think that we could do with having a USIA on steroids.

I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.

Efforts to fight and win the Global War on Terror, while simultaneously promoting democracy throughout the world, also require an improved and creative campaign of public diplomacy …. We can use medicine as a currency for peace.

The media has become a major player in the conduct of diplomacy.

Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

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.

Public Diplomacy – the open exchange of ideas and information – is an inherent characteristic of democratic societies. Its global mission is central to … foreign policy. And it remains indispensable to … national interests, ideals and leadership role in the world.

The United States need not worry about hearts and minds in foreign lands.

The Obama Doctrine is the first presidential strategy in history that is exclusively about communicating - not implementing - policy. The Obama Doctrine seems to be 'tweet with overwhelming force.'

The most successful cultural diplomacy strategy integrates people-to-people or arts/culture/media-to-people interactions into the basic business of diplomacy. The programs in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iran all contribute to core goals of U.S. policy in those countries.

And we ought to work our diplomacy first and I think it's a reason it's going to respond increasingly to our diplomacy particularly with the president's direct involvement in the peace process, and I think that's extraordinarily important.

There is a sense in which the United States ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat rather than a thermometer. So I'm going to be actively working... for my own concerns. I have always had people advise me on what to say, but never on what not to say.

One of my goals upon becoming Secretary of State was to take diplomacy out of capitals, out of government offices, into the media, into the streets of countries.

You can’t outsource diplomacy. You can’t do it unless you do it.

The generation of news by actions taken by the government becomes one weapon in a strained situation. The results, in my opinion, justify the methods we use… News generated by actions of the government as to content and timing are part of the arsenal of weaponry that a President has in application of military force and related forces to the solution of political problems, or to the application of international political pressure.

Diplomacy, is persuasion in the shadow of power.

Ordinary people abroad take a better attitude toward men who come as guests with their wives. ….Therefore, I would propose that Khrushchev take Nina Petrovna with him and also include in the delegation other members of his family. This will be well received by ordinary Americans, and that would be better for us.

I think it's fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you're the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.

The foreign policy of the United States rests entirely on propagandistic lies.

China's propaganda approach with the West is different than the one used by the Soviet Union, which used Western belligerence to maintain its control over its domestic audience. China's strategy is one of influence and inertia.

Russia today is nothing but a propaganda arm.

What we (U.S.) have done, is undertaken diplomacy through public assertions that tend to alienate everyone.

I think soft power definitely can work. But, you know, it depends on who you're dealing with. Some people are so intent upon power and keeping power that it's very difficult to conduct soft power.

Prince Felipe is the best ambassador for Spain: I have already told Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, minister of foreign affairs, that the prince should travel to the U.S. more often.

I believe that my experience as an HBO executive responsible for global marketing and communications should serve our country well as we tell America's story in Spain and Andorra.