State Actors Quotes

Economic transactions between national bodies who are at the same time the supreme judges of their own behavior, who bow to no superior law, and whose representatives cannot be bound by any considerations but the immediate interest of their respective nations, must end in clashes of power.

Great powers engage.

Russia has always been involved in propaganda and disinformation.

Government is just people acting on behalf of others rather than acting on behalf of themselves.

Before there was the Soviet Union that could inflame matters. Now you have states not as powerful as the Soviet Union, but states like Iraq, like Iran, and to some extent Syria, having made it possible for some of these groups to operate. So it is a very difficult situation.

I consider Bush's decision to call for a war against terrorism a serious mistake. He is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies, and one cannot lead a war against a network if the term war is to retain any definite meaning.

States are not moral agents.

Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.

Iran is part of the problem, not the solution. And the Russian government is ignoring reality.

I talk with countries, whether it's the Arab states or in the Middle East, and they talk about how they're glad to see us fighting against Iran. I talk with different countries in reference to Syria, and we talk about how we can get the Iranian influence out. We're talking about North Korea and what we need to do and the pressure we need to put on China. They're happy that we're finally beating up on Russia for what they've done in the Ukraine.

You can reach agreements with countries; you cannot reach agreements with gangs.

Russia is not a friendly character on the world stage.

Remember, the U.S. is a powerful state, it's not like Libya. If Libya wants to carry out terrorist acts, they hire Carlos the Jackal or something. The United States hires terrorist states.

Nothing can be done about a rogue state unless the great powers stand together … There may be other things that the great powers can compete over, but not over dealing with rogue states and their methods of mass destruction.

States can be deterred by the fear of retaliation; non-state organisations cannot by deterred at all.

International law seeks to avoid the use of force but does not preclude it.

No matter the good news anywhere else, these nuke-hungry rogue states will provide grounds for bad-mouthing Bush foreign policy.

How can we pressure China on North Korea if China's one of the two largest holders of American debt?

That is because the conflict with al Qaeda is not governed by the Geneva Conventions, which applies only to international conflicts between states that have signed them.

We have raised significant concerns about the way that China and individuals acting on behalf of the state of China have acted in cyberspace.

This diffusion of nuclear weapons is terrible…terrible. Imagine a world with a large number of states with nuclear bombs.

There are too many countries which have used terrorism as a tactic.

If you are asking whether states and state actors can only respond through revenge, then you are suggesting that diplomatic solutions are hopeless.

Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend. We were the ones that worked with Saddam Hussein. The United States worked with bin Laden.

We must engage in a whole-of-government approach to combat Russian active measures.