Robert M. Gates Quotes

America must always lead on the world stage.

U. S. [world] leadership has endured, in part because American principles are embedded in the international economic framework.

It's true that America can't solve every problem, but I don't know of any major problem in the world that can be solved without us.

The U.N. is one of many competitors in a marketplace of global problem solving.

For years now, long before I became House majority leader, I have been passionate about foreign affairs because I believe that anyone who leads in Washington must appreciate the significance of America's role in providing for global security and prosperity.

I think the U.S. should assert its leadership in a more effective way.

There is no way that any major international problem anywhere in the world can be solved efficiently with the United States sitting on the sideline.

If we want to be the leader of the world we have a unique responsibility to understand the problems of countries who cannot solve their own problems.

America cannot meet this century's challenges alone; the world cannot meet them without America.

The United States is necessary for the solution to many problems in the world today. However, we are no longer sufficient..

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

Making the case for sustained U. S. [world] leadership is not always easy. Unilateralism or isolationism often make for better sound bites.

The U.N. can be very frustrating and at times impotent, but it can also be a valuable forum for discussion and resolution of world problems. We should not walk away from it just because it's failed to live up to its promise.

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special responsibility. In addition to protecting our national interests, we must take the leadership in protecting the common interests of humanity.

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.

Germany must be a country which generates political ideas and leadership, which is capable of compromise, which is sovereign and yet knows that it needs its partners on both sides of the Atlantic.

The United States plays, for the most part, a constructive global role, and to the extent that that role shrinks, other countries, even those most critical of what America does abroad, will suffer.

America has saved the world most of the time, but messed it up a couple of times.

You cannot have individual foreign policy. You cannot have celebrity foreign policy.

The United States does not feel any need to consult with anybody … except when it suits them.

The world wants America to lead. It does not want America to impose or dictate.

America remains the indispensable nation. There are times when America, and only America, can make a difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression.

Under the George W. Bush Administration…, the United States was generally seen as having the capacity and resolve, to pursue its own agenda in complete disregard of other states’ preferences.

For more than 70 years, the presidents of both parties believed that American security and prosperity were directly tied to the success of freedom in the world. And they knew that the success depended, in large part, on U.S. leadership. This mission came naturally, because it expressed the DNA of American idealism.