Bret Stephens Quotes

My politics are very centrist and sometimes, especially when it comes to foreign affairs, lean to the right.

Foreign policy can be the undoing of absolute rulers, tempted to foreign adventure in order to compensate for failure at home or spurred on by domestic adulation.

We ought to nuke North Korea right about now just to give the world a warning.

The U.S and England are not worthy of security council membership. Those who want good relations with the Iranian people should bow and surrender to its right and might.

Isolationism has been a calamity.

Foreign policy today is economics.

used as oil to smooth the troubled water of our aggressive commercial policy

However Donald Trump came upon the foreign policy views he espoused, they were as crucial to his election as his views on trade and the border.

I'm not much of an economic conservative, and I'm not conservative at all on foreign policy.

Russia continues to side with... rogue states and terrorist organizations, following Vladimir Putin's pattern of gratuitous and unpunished affronts to U.S. interests.

The way that Trump spoke about the outside world was the most aggressive, most hyper-nationalist, and in some ways most hostile of any inaugural address I think since the Second World War.

I'm not a big fan of Putin. I'm not a big fan of Russia.

I've learned over the years to hear what Putin is railing against in his own railing way.

Putin really assumed that once Trump - who had such clear admiration for him - was elected, it would be convenient for Trump to change the relationship with Russia profoundly and instantly.

Argentina needs to have a different foreign policy. Because of a lack of foreign policy, investments haven't been what they should be.

While Democrats, including Barack Obama, mocked the notion that Russia is the greatest threat to our country, nobody has been tougher on Russia and Vladimir Putin than President Donald Trump.

As the world has grown bigger for our country, the opportunities greater, the chances more glittering for our commerce and our people, too many of those who practice politics have taken a cramped and limited view of Europe and the rest of the world.

Just recently, President Donald Trump said that he believes that Mr. Vladimir Putin, when he said he didn't know about interfering in our elections - or he thought he was sincere. Quite frankly, Russia intentionally interfered in our election, and Mr. Putin was behind that. And the new sanctions need to be imposed.

Donald Trump is not qualified to be president because he's not qualified to deal with Vladimir Putin.

Many politicians in the West cling to the notion of a partnership with Russia. They want to include [Vladimir] Putin, make compromises and constantly negotiate new deals with him. But history has taught us that the longer we pursue appeasement and do nothing, the higher the price will be later on. Dictators don't ask "Why?" before they seize even more power. They ask: "Why not?"

I don't think Donald Trump is a conservative. I think his line on China for example, that he's going to talk tough to China. China didn't create Social Security, Medicare. China isn't spending a fifth of a billion dollars every hour that it doesn't have.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

We must rid this nation of the United Nations, which provides the communist conspiracy with a headquarters here on our own shores, and which actually makes it impossible for the United States to form its own decisions about its conduct and policies in Europe and Asia.

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.

We have tried to make it clear that the United States is not just an old cow that gives more milk the more it is kicked in the flanks.