Condoleezza Rice Quotes

I don't believe in ideology in international relations.

American foreign policy must be fashioned by the United States, not the United Nations.

The fact is that no foreign-policy doctrine is perfect.

But it is well to remember that we are dealing with nations every one of which has a direct individual interest to serve, and there is grave danger in an unshared idealism.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.

I don't believe, in the 21st century, in the balance of power system. This is a European idea of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.

… realpolitik

Power politics is another name for the law of the jungle.

[To Americans] diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interwar period, appeasement of Fascism.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

In power politics, it's usually not enough to be liked. A nation has to be considered essential.

Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.

Indeed, in foreign policymaking, inconsistency is often a virtue. I speak not of principles but of policy.

Britain rightly sees herself as a global good citizen, but she must reconcile ambition with power, ends with means - shedding utopian idealism in favour of a more rugged internationalism, putting the national interest first, not last.

Like other countries in the world, China must uphold its own sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests. At the same time, we are willing to properly handle differences and disagreements in state-to-state relations.

Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets.

I mean, like a lot of kids growing up in the early seventies, I was fed Dr. Kissinger with my Fruit Loops. He was the Dr. Ruth of American foreign policy, and the model statesman.

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

America is exceptional in combining standard great-power realism with extravagant idealism about the country's redemptive role in creating international order.

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.

Since the end of the Cold War, hegemonism has become increasingly unpopular.

It's dismaying to see the unilateralism that the government is doing.