Gary Ackerman Quotes

Statecraft, as these cases convincingly illustrate, is demanding and often exhausting work. There are risks, and success is not guaranteed. It requires major governmental and political resources and the same kind of hourly, year-round planning and execution as the conduct of a military campaign.

Statesmanship is harder than politics. Politics is the art of getting along with people, whereas statesmanship is the art of getting along with politicians.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Part of the genius of diplomacy is to resolve issues before crises come along.

You don’t just go to a summit meeting and say, ‘What do we talk about?’ These things require much planning. Each one of these meeting has consequences and we have to make sure we have the right consequences.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

Analysts can choose the problems that they want to study whereas the statesman’s problems are imposed on him.

What he's really talking about - and I'm speaking for Mike Flynn, not Donald Trump - is that he's saying, essentially, we have to have options. We have to have a lot of options. And, frankly, we do. We do have a lot of options.

I felt from the start that America was not likely to relinquish lightly positions established at the cost of such sacrifices, and I pressed the view that a high degree of preparation and willingness to make sacrifices would be necessary on our side, but everybody here always persists in facile optimism until the very worst actually happens.

A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.

Our words, actions, and diplomatic efforts should be aimed at trying to achieve pragmatic goals rather than creating rhetorical effect.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

The important thing is that we recognize our President's leadership, that he is not saying: I am going to walk away from this. He is saying: I am going to do the right thing.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

The Obama administration rarely demonstrated the ability to shift gears and change policy in its first year. Even in the face of historic events such as the continuing demonstrations against Iran's regime, it stuck devotedly to prior plans.

In an ideological age, diplomacy may seem weak and prosaic. But sometimes it is all we have.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

A constructive approach to diplomacy doesn't mean relinquishing one's rights. It means engaging with one's counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect, to address shared concerns and achieve shared objectives.

Fortunately, President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy disagreed with the estimate and chose a course of action less ambitious and aggressive than recommended by their advisers.

To craftsmanship we shall add statesmanship in the capitol of peace.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.

George Bush has shown great skill at disguising an incredibly weak foreign policy.