Tom Cotton Quotes

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

Trust between allies is as important as deterrence of foes.

In international affairs, you never threaten things you're not prepared to do.

If you want to treat China as an enemy, you have a much better chance of making them an enemy than if you treat them as a potential friend.

We're not trying to start a war; we're trying to send a political message.

Peace is purchased from strength. It's not purchased from weakness or unilateral retreats.

If you treat China like a foe, surely she will become one.

We have treated our most serious adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea, in the most juvenile manner - by giving them the silent treatment. In so doing, we have weakened, not strengthened, our bargaining position and our leadership.

I told him that my own opinion was that the time now and the method now to deal with Russia was to keep our mouths shut and let our actions speak for words.

It is absolutely unacceptable to talk to Russia - or anyone for that matter - in the language of ultimatums and coercive measures.

Poles understand perhaps better than anyone the consequences of making toothless warnings to brutal tyrants and terrorist regimes.

It was not that the Americans lacked the capacity to force their allies into line… What is surprising is how rarely this happened…

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

Great powers engage.

For the maintenance of peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks which forerun cannon shots.

I could have been very popular if I had launched a military attack on Iran but I chose patience.

The simple fact about alliances is that different nations have their own interests.

Foreign policy does not mean guns and rifles, but utilizing all legitimate international means to convince others.

Whenever peace—conceived as the avoidance of war—has been the primary objective of a power or group of powers, the international system has been at the mercy of the most ruthless member of the international community.

The management of a balance of power is a permanent undertaking, not an exertion that has a foreseeable end.

America’s foreign policy has left us with more enemies and fewer allies.

Today we will find most nations to be both our partners and our adversaries—sometimes simultaneously.

It is not important what the other side says or means. What is important are the military capabilities of the other side.

Frankly, Senators, if nations may not safely agree to respect each other’s rights, and may not agree to confer if one party to the compact threatens trespass, or may not agree to advise if one party to the pact is threatened by an outside power, then all concerted efforts to tranquilize the world and stabilize peace must be flung to the winds. Either these treaties must have your cordial sanction, or every proclaimed desire to promote peace and prevent war becomes a hollow mockery

So much of our foreign policy is based on other people’s weakness.