Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

The main challenge for American foreign policy in many places is not to influence relations between states but rather to influence events within states.

The statesmen still say that we should not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations and yet it is not possible any longer not to interfere, even when we do not mean to do so.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

We are pursuing what I trust is a correct course from the point of international law, and we are not intervening in the internal affairs of this country …

Perhaps we have already intervened too much in the affairs of other peoples.

The American nation cannot reach across the planet and pick the leadership of other countries.

The American preoccupation with promoting democracy abroad fits into a larger liberal view about the sources of a stable, legitimate, secure, and prosperous international order.

But, if you believe we should go around the world overturning regimes to make little United States, I don't agree with that, because I don't think we're capable of doing that.

Nothing in the constitutions of Western states requires them to get involved in every foreign conflict.

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.

I think that there is a limit on how far you can export democracy.

Foreign Policy has to be less foreign.

If governments do not want to work with the U.N. and the international organizations, there is a limit to what you can do. And there is also a limit to patience.

Governments can expect to act multilaterally or unilaterally—but not have it both ways at the same time.

We don't have the temperament to be an occupying power.

Foreign policy begins with domestic policy.

All foreign policy is the intervention of one nation's domestic politics into another nation's domestic politics.

Unilateralism and isolationism are ideological twins.

You cannot have individual foreign policy. You cannot have celebrity foreign policy.

Between countries -- regardless of whether they are democratic or authoritarian -- there will need to be an explanation, either for publics or for powerful constituencies

American interests dictate that we teach other peoples to govern themselves.

American foreign policy must uphold the sanctity of international treaties. That is the cornerstone on which all relations between nations must rest.

Promoting democracy is one goal of U. S. foreign policy dating back at least 100 years. But it has always been one goal of many, often negated and outweighed by other competing interests.

The United States will always be a global leader, and we need to actively engage the international community to make sure all citizens of the world live freely and equally under their country's rule of law. We cannot, however, afford to fight other nations' wars interminably or stabilize their regions.

To assert that we desire to bring about revolution in other countries, by interfering with their lives, is to speak of something which does not exist and which we never preach.