Ben Rhodes Quotes

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

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.

It's not just Iraq - it's the Atlantic partnership which is at stake.

As far as the international issues are concerned, the most important thing is the state of the transatlantic relationships, Euro-Atlantic relationships: how to develop them and how to strengthen them further.

Foreign Policy has to be less foreign.

We should be working with our European allies, not turning them into opponents.

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

As we have seen, the wireless and the airplane have made the world so small and nations so dependent on each other that the only alternative to war is the United States of the World.

Well, I think the United States first of all has to recognize the world for what it is.

There are nearly 200 countries and a population of over 6 billion in today's world. International affairs should be addressed by all countries through consultations rather than monopolised by a few powers.

Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations.

Isolationism is over.

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

No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.

If I correctly understand the goal of American policy, one wishes Russia to be a partner.

Unilateral preemption should not in any way be the model for how we conduct international relations.

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.

I met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, visited our allies in the Arab Gulf, traveled to Tunisia and Iraq, met with President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine, and visited our allies in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

The real danger to Britain is a foreign policy that is isolationist in Europe and therefore weak in the rest of the world.

Of course the United States and Russia have different interests. Nevertheless, both are strategic partners.

Here we encounter two conflicting concepts with which we must come to grips in our time: the idea of national solidarity and the idea of international cooperation.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the 'my way or the highway' approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

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

Today's global landscape is increasingly interconnected. China and the Middle East play critical roles towards international peace and security.

Clinton saw himself much more as the steward of alliances and of consensus that moved in the right direction. He didn't see himself as someone who could change the overall thrust, I think, of global policy.