Douglas Alexander Quotes

Ambassadors are, by definition, foreign bodies.

When the ambassadors of other foreign countries come to Japan to make treaties, they can be told that such and such a treaty has been made with the ambassador of the United States, and they will rest satisfied with this.

Diplomacy is a frequently neglected imperative.

An International Congress [Summit]: the greatest of all Vanity Fairs …. Each Prime Minister thinks that he alone is capable of representing his country’s policy. Each Foreign Secretary thinks that the Premier knows nothing of diplomacy. Each professional ambassador thinks the same about his Foreign Secretary …. It is an orchestra of first violins.

Back channels themselves are as old as American diplomacy. Thomas Jefferson was an early enthusiast - he often routed around his secretary of state, once sending a secret letter to the American envoy in France, Robert Livingston, that contained a coded message.

The world of high-stakes international diplomacy can be rough and tumble, but it's more often than not a procession of suits and summits, protocol sessions and photo ops.

A great nation like the United States has many and varied interests, and we need both to do business with tyrants and to engage constantly in multilateral diplomacy.

When I was in college, I became interested in various aspects of foreign policy and international relations. Even as a kid, I was interested in what I call, loosely speaking, forbidden knowledge.

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

Richard Holbrooke is known for many things, but I will remember him as an impressive, sometimes even intimidating diplomat who understood the value of culture in diplomacy.

Turkey can be a bridge to regimes and actions the United States can't reach. Turkey can talk to people the United States can't talk to.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts, and politicians violently denounce the politicians of other 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.

I think that the president of Iran has the authority wherever which - where - wherever the national interests of the country are involved and, when it is necessary and expedient and required to speak and talk with others in order to promote the rights of its nation, that the president can take that initiative.

Foreign policy is effectively the assertion of many individual countries intersecting on the global marketplace. And you have to figure out how to get your interest served in a way that meets the interests and needs of these other folks.

I shall have to depend upon you for taking care of these matters of foreign affairs, of which I know so little, and with which I reckon you are familiar.

I don’t talk to countries that exhibit bad behavior.

The first thing a diplomat has to do is understand the domestic politics of foreign states.

We will definitely not allow the killing of our Iraqi Ambassador to deny us the right to have an ambassador.

Foreign policy works best when force and diplomacy are used together.

You do not build a foreign policy based on one man.

Entangling alliances have been considered worse than original sin since George Washington.

The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government.

The Emperor has the option to communicate with the help of the Italian government for all matters that he wants with the kings of Europe. [Aramaic Version] The Emperor consents to use the Italian government for all the business he does with all the other Powers or Governments. [Italian Version]

If we start seeing one ambassador I don’t know how we’re going to avoid seeing the other 113 …. I don’t see what mileage we get in seeing 80 African ambassadors.