Chris Murphy Quotes

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

Foreign policy is about choosing from nasty options.

Foreign policy begins with domestic policy.

I don’t think that we should ever apply our military power unilaterally…. If we cannot persuade like-minded, friendly nations of the wisdom of our policy, then maybe we should rethink the policy.

Under Clinton, the defiance of world order has become so extreme as to be of concern even to hawkish policy analysts.

In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.

We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

For eight years, you had the Bush administration with a very interventionist policy, driving into world affairs, driving primarily into the Islamic world, army first or fist first.

I think if you're going to master policy, especially world affairs, you've got to know history.

It is one thing to be against unilateralism and against nonhumanitarian interventionism - but it is quite another thing to be against humanitarian interventionism.

I'm tired of the U.S. getting involved in every country's individual disputes.

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

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

There are, however, cases in which, while our own interests are not greatly involved, strong appeal is made to our sympathies.... in extreme cases action may be justifiable and proper. What form the action shall take must depend upon the circumstances of the case; that is, upon the degree of the atrocity and upon our power to remedy it.

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

World politics is not a kindergarten.

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

We do not have the God-given right to intervene in any country in which we feel like intervening.

... American temptation to beleive that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

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

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.

No world power has ever tried to manage affair in this particular circumstance: The cycle of News, the cycle of crises, the complexity of grievances in increasing numbers of failed and failing states.

Foreign policy is the most constraining form of policy-making

Nor should we assume that a nation's foreign policy is simply the logical outgrowth of general national conceptions. It is rather the result of many diverse forces, practical as well as patriotic.