Daniel Fried famous quotes

Nationalism ... is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.
-- Daniel Fried

#Drunk #Alcohol #Firsts

We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan
-- Daniel Fried

#Government #Uzbekistan #Request

The world should contemplate a nuclear weapons-armed Iran with the greatest of concern.
-- Daniel Fried

#Iran #World #Weapons

At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that.
-- Daniel Fried

#Country #Flags #Burning

Nationalism is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.
-- Daniel Fried

#Drunk #Alcohol #Firsts

Partisanship is not part of my professional makeup.
-- Daniel Fried

#Makeup #Partisanship

ISIS is the near-term threat, and that the longer - or the mid-term challenge is managing the rise of China. There's some evidence that that's the thinking of the [Donald Trump] administration. That's a perfectly reasonable approach. Well, if that's the case, then you surely want to have a united West to deal with both, and you want to have Russia alongside, but maybe not this Russia while it's busy trying to undermine your chief asset, which is a united West.
-- Daniel Fried

#Thinking #Russia #Isis

I think that President George W. Bush was ahead of most of his government, in realizing that Putin was not the person we thought he was.
-- Daniel Fried

#Thinking #Government #President

Realism is important in foreign policy. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, and about the pitfalls, and problems along the way, of which there are plenty. Nothing is easy. It's always rough.
-- Daniel Fried

#Important #Pitfalls #Way

[Donald Trump administration] didn`t ask me to stay and 40 years seemed like enough.
-- Daniel Fried

#Years #Administration #Enough

There are lots of secretaries who send off special envoys and yes, say, "Do a great job," and that's fine until it costs you something. And then they cut you off.
-- Daniel Fried

#Jobs #Cutting #Special

Diplomacy is not merely talking somebody into something; it's talking to somebody from a position of strength. You put your power on the table to open up the conversation; that's diplomacy.
-- Daniel Fried

#Talking #Tables #Conversation

John Kerry tried to work with the Russians on Syria, and the man was honorable, because he was trying to do the right thing, and frankly, playing a very weak hand, a hand that was weak not because of him, okay. He did the best he could, but I will say this to his enormous credit: he never offered a dirty deal. You can have Ukraine if you only help us out on Syria. Never - he never did that.
-- Daniel Fried

#Dirty #Men #Ukraine

No great power is ever satisfied with its sphere of influence. They never are.
-- Daniel Fried

#Sphere Of Influence #Spheres #Satisfied

Realism as a foreign policy doctrine means basically you don't care about values; you consider them a luxury, and it leads to a kind of acquiescence in spheres of influence. Now, spheres of influence sound good if you're a graduate student, or a certain kind of - an academic with a certain habit of mind. But in fact, spheres of influence don't work out very well, certainly not for the victims, and there are always victims.
-- Daniel Fried

#Mean #Luxury #Work Out

Be careful about a policy generated with enthusiasm in the rush of a moment. It usually doesn't turn out well.
-- Daniel Fried

#Enthusiasm #Moments #Be Careful

Russia could be, in fact, it would have to be a different Russia, but it could be a splendid ally. I will say this for the Russians: on their - in their favor, they have the intellectual capacity and the habits of mind to act in the world on a strategic scale, and were they do to so in service of a better cause than their current set of grievances, they would be a natural partner.
-- Daniel Fried

#Russia #Intellectual #Mind

Don't mistake the Russia you want to exist for the Russia that there actually is. Be realistic.
-- Daniel Fried

#Mistake #Russia #Want

In my view, [Vladimir] Putin despises the West in general and the United States in particular, both for who we are, our liberal values, and for what we`ve done, which is to take down the Soviet Empire.
-- Daniel Fried

#Views #West #United States

That was pretty smooth, because you don`t want something to go wrong when you have a whole senior level of actings. That`s not a position you want to be in. It`s OK to replace your team, but usually you want them to be in place until the new people are confirmed.
-- Daniel Fried

#Senior #Team #Want Something

[Russians] want to bring us down to make them feel better about the failure of the Soviet Union. I don`t mean bring us down as in collapse, but bring us down a notch in a big way.
-- Daniel Fried

#Mean #Feel Better #Unions

We`re a little bit low in the 1970s, right, post-Vietnam, Watergate era, malaise, all that, but this is more like the 1930s where the very notion of liberal democracy is being questioned, and that is disturbing.
-- Daniel Fried

#Democracy #Vietnam #Littles

I think the West is in a low point we haven`t seen since the 1930s.
-- Daniel Fried

#Thinking #West #Lows

The West in its modern form since 1945 is a miracle, and that`s in our American interests. It`s its good that the West is strong and at peace, and we should want more of that, not less.
-- Daniel Fried

#Strong #Miracle #Want

The European Union, ok, right, it has a bureaucracy, right. It`s sometimes difficult to deal with but so what? You hire a couple of people like me to work the European Union, and it can be done. It`s pretty good.
-- Daniel Fried

#Couple #People #Done

Two World Wars are sufficient and we are the ones who supported this notion of a united Europe, so there would never be another set of civil wars in Europe again, ever. That was a fabulous success. It was so fabulous that people now take it for granted.
-- Daniel Fried

#War #Two Worlds #Europe