Richard Holbrooke Quotes
There’s no reason to respect anyone’s word in that part of the world. The only thing they respect is force and the threat of force.
Richard Holbrooke, 1941-2010, U. S. Delegate to the United Nations, Assistant Secretary of State and Special Envoy (Democrat), Ambassador to Germany, Comment on the Balkans, Interview, ABC This Week, October 18, 1998
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In this case, he was referring to the situation with the Barbary Pirates who had an incredible extortion racket going in the Mediterranean. If nations would pay them an annual sum each year, they would not attack and seize merchant ships of that country and sell the ships and goods while holding the sailors for ransom. Jefferson favored and authorized war—a naval attack which for many reasons the European nations had not done (they just paid the tribute). Then a peace treaty was finally signed—the first American Treaty.
The highest court in New York.
This view maintains that a nation must be willing to use force and appear to others that it is willing if it is to get any benefit from soft power. Others disagree.
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 to 1981 and Europe from 1994 to 1996).
