Campaigning and governing are two very different activities, and there is no reason to assume that how Trump conducted the former will dictate how he approaches the latter.
— Richard N. Haass
How can we pressure China on North Korea if China's one of the two largest holders of American debt?
There is no way to know for certain what accounts for North Korean decisionmaking, given how closed a country it is.
Terrorists continue to be outliers with limited appeal at best.
I believe in diplomacy; I don't believe in talking to... that talking to Iran somehow constitutes a concession or a favour.
Generically, wars in necessity are wars where, I think, the vital interest of the nation are at stake, in which there are no viable alternatives to the use of force.
I tend to be one of those who does not equate democratization with the holding of elections. The emphasis ought to be on such things as rule of law, economic reform, and promotion of a free media - in short, essentially independent, free institutions.
What is obvious is that Donald Trump is comfortable with an approach to running his presidency based on what worked for him in the private sector.
Trump is the first post-World War II American president to view the burdens of world leadership as outweighing the benefits.
There's a pattern in Bush 43's presidency of being attracted to the big and the bold, and my whole reading of him is that he was instinctively uncomfortable with what you might call a modulated foreign policy - a foreign policy of adjustment, of degree.
White House staff are meant to coordinate and set policy, not carry it out.
If you assume away most or all of the questions or difficulties, you can persuade yourself of just about anything.
Homegrown terrorists are a real problem for even the most modern, democratic societies.
Terrorism is a decentralized phenomenon - in its funding, planning, and execution.
Dissent is as American as cherry pie.
I am confident in saying that Oberlin did more for me than vice versa. I took a fantastic class in religion, which led me to archaeology, which got me to the Middle East, which led me to international relations, which launched me on my career.
The decision to attack Iraq in March 2003 was discretionary; it was a war of choice.
I did not believe in the Iraq war.
No amount of sanctioning will persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, nor will China step up and solve the problem for us.
The Internet, one of the great inventions of the modern Western world, has shown itself to be a weapon that can be used to incite and train those who wish to cause harm to that world.
September 11, 2001, was a terrible tragedy by any measure, but it was not a historical turning point. It did not herald a new era of international relations in which terrorists with a global agenda prevailed or in which such spectacular terrorist attacks became commonplace.
For President Bush, the first, the 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush, I spent all 4 years of his presidency on the staff for the National Security Council.
There is a clear norm against the spread of nuclear weapons, but there is no consensus or treaty on what, if anything, is to be done once a country develops or acquires nuclear weapons.
Any time you use military force, you have got to have a clear purpose that military forces can achieve.
The Trump administration has been characterized by adhocracy during its initial months. The initiative limiting immigration is a case in point. The new policy was not vetted fully within the administration - indeed, then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates first read the decision after the text of the new executive order was published online.
Donald Trump's United States is not isolationist. He has authorized the use of limited military force against the Syrian government in a manner his predecessor rejected.
The first Iraq War was one of necessity because vital U.S. interests were at stake, and we reached the point where no other national-security instruments were likely to achieve the necessary goal, which was the reversal of Saddam Hussein's invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
Diplomacy can and will matter; little is inevitable in international relations.
American influence in the world depends on the ability to act with real capacity and set an example that others will want to follow. This all takes resources.
The horror and tragedy that was 9/11 did many things; one of them was to galvanize this country and much of the world against terrorists and those who support them.
Foreign policy must be about priorities. The United States cannot do everything everywhere.
Speaking truth to power is actually a form of loyalty.
There is no getting around the reality that the second Iraq war was a war of choice; had it been carried out differently, it still would have been an expensive choice and almost certainly a bad one.
The United States emerged from the Cold War with unprecedented absolute and relative power. It was truly first among unequals.
Our inability to govern ourselves at home, to deal with everything from infrastructure to our debt to tax policy, is reducing the appeal of the American model.
Living with a nuclear North Korea could give its leaders the confidence to act more aggressively versus South Korea. It could also, over time, drive both South Korea and Japan, as well as countries farther afield such as Vietnam, to reconsider their non-nuclear postures. The stability of a critical region of the world would suddenly be in doubt.
Terrorists and terrorism cannot be eliminated any more than we can rid the world of disease. There will always be those who will resort to force against innocent men, women, and children in pursuit of political goals.
To be sure, many of the Sykes-Picot borders reflected deals cut in Europe rather than local demographic or historical realities. But that hardly makes the Middle East unique: Most borders around the world owe their legacy less to thoughtful design or popular choice than to some mixture of violence, ambition, geography, and chance.
Vietnam was not a war of choice the United States had to fight. It was clearly not central.
Black markets exist any time there is a profit to be made.
The political world is defined by relationships rather than transactions, and by numerous actors at home and abroad with independent power. Navigating such a world is difficult and precarious.
Trade accords had been a staple of the post-World War II world, providing a mechanism for economic growth, development, and association with friends and allies, and a means of reining in would-be adversaries who otherwise would have little incentive to act with restraint.
When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it's normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers.
Good people cannot fully compensate for bad process, but they can mitigate some of its worst tendencies.
If anything, what happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam set back prospects for democratic reform in the region, as many came to associate political change with chaos.
On occasion, terrorists will succeed despite our best efforts. That is part of the legacy of 9/11. But 9/11 also shows us that while terrorists can destroy, they are unable to create.
America must reduce its fiscal deficit, modernize its infrastructure, and improve its schools.
I did not support the U.S. decision to intervene with military force in Libya. The evidence was not persuasive that a large-scale massacre or genocide was either likely or imminent. Policies other than military intervention were never given a full chance.
Dissent is difficult. It can constitute a real dilemma for the person who disagrees.
Wars of necessity are essentially unavoidable. They involve the most important national interests, a lack of promising alternatives to the use of force, and a certain and considerable price to be paid if the status quo is allowed to stand. Examples include World War II and the Korean War.
