Mary Robinson Quotes

My main concern is with the world order

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

Both Russia and the United States are struggling to define their proper roles in the world.

An increasingly multipolar world requires an entirely different kind of U.S. foreign policy: far from being unilateralist, it necessitates a complex form of power-sharing on both a global and regional basis.

President Obama's consistent agenda has been to weaken the United States and our allies in pursuit of a more 'balanced' global power structure.

Since the end of the Cold War, hegemonism has become increasingly unpopular.

In this day and age, the U.S. and Europe do not have the luxury of focusing solely on a single region.

You can't build a foreign policy on the presence of an individual [a particular foreign leader].

Multilateralism may be little more than a polite way of camouflaging what is in practice unilateralism with allies.

There will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, balances of power ...

It is the natural desire of each nation to use the other as an instrument of its own purposes and policies. By dint of our mutual dependence, your influence is amplified by our power. Our power is made more responsible and more effective by your influence.

Political and security realities have reduced the scope of American unilateralism.

A new multipolar world has brought more uncertainty into international affairs.

I'm in favour of a multi-polar world. I believe that every country has the right to defend its own interests.

Europeans must shed their illusions about what they can accomplish in the world on their own. Loose talk about resurrecting a multi-polar world is just that - loose talk.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, you know, who was one of the authors of U.S. dominance, he's changed his mind, you know, and he's saying now we've got to learn to cooperate with other world powers. We are not the bully in the schoolyard here.We've got to deal with them. And that's my feeling.

[Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is an adherent of realpolitik. He knows that international relations are not built on the strength of unilateral demands, but on solutions that are in everybody's best interest.

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.

American foreign policy, for all its shortcomings, has underpinned political stability around the world.

Multi- polarisation has become an inevitable trend in the process of shaping a global political pattern and has been widely welcomed by the international community as it reflects the common interests and aspiration of the overwhelming majority of countries.

Europe has united, China is growing speedily and Russia possesses immense power in terms of fuel resources. The US administration cannot do anything about it.

No nation has friends only interests.

I don't believe, in the 21st century, in the balance of power system. This is a European idea of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

In fact, it struck me when we invaded last year that if we did it without European and East Asian support, we were risking losing our alliance in Europe in exchange for Iraq, and that is a very undesirable exchange.