Barack Obama Quotes

This is the problem with foreign policy - talking about foreign policy in a political context. Politics is binary. People win and lose elections. Legislation passes or doesn't pass. And in foreign policy often what you're doing is nuance and you're trying to prevent something worse from happening. It doesn't translate well into a political environment.

We must reject the idea of isolationism, . But that doesn't mean we should get involved in every civil war around the world.

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

White House and State Department foreign-policy experts are overwhelmingly directed towards military and diplomatic issues, not development issues.

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

The matter of international relations is very subtle and exquisite.

Foreign Policy has to be less foreign.

Very near the heart of all foreign affairs is the relationship between policy and military power.

War is but an instrument of international policy.

So much of our foreign policy is based on other people’s weakness.

People think that it only takes an American decision to solve this or that problem [in foreign affairs].

In addition to deep divisions on issues such as trade, climate change, Middle East peace and nuclear weapons, Trump's attacks on leaders such as Trudeau and Merkel and disrespect for NATO and other institutions are prompting a reassessment by allied governments and publics.

I can't take anything off the table. Because you look at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we're doing nothing there. China should solve that problem for us. China should go into North Korea. China is totally powerful as it relates to North Korea.

International relations bears more than a slight resemblance to the mafia.

Foreign policy is now a huge field. It isn't just people who are studying political science. There are so many aspects to it in terms of understanding hard science for people who are studying climate change, or people who are interested in health policy or food security, or people who care about education.

I believe that we are going to get along very well with him [Josef Stalin] and the Russian people - very well indeed.

A lot of controversy over this possible invasion of Iraq. In fact, Nelson Mandela was so upset, he called Bush's dad. How embarrassing, when world leaders start calling your father.

The foreign policy, you have to know how to pick and choose. There's no way, if Saddam [Hussein] had not had weapons of mass destruction, I would have gone, because I don't believe that the U.S. should be involved directly in civil wars.

I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.

Turkish-American relations are based on very strong foundations. Currently, we have a war in the region, which could not be prevented, unfortunately. We hope it is a short war ... with minimum casualties.

Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good.

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

I'm a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

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

War on terrorism defines the central preoccupation of the United States in the world today, and it does reflect in my view a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy of the world's first superpower, of a great democracy, with genuinely idealistic traditions.