There is a natural partnership between State and Commerce, and the American business community to work together to educate the United States about marketing overseas.

My father was somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan.

There are sometimes problems for which there is no immediate solution, and there are sometimes problems for which there is no solution.

The question really is how do we get Embassy Officers into the minds of the American business community. That is a much more difficult task than understanding a statistical matrix.

Any Ambassador or Foreign Service Officer who has his or her head screwed on right knows that the U.S. position in the world is far more dependent on our ability to compete in world markets.

If you take a look at Afghan history, usually they have united to defend against an outside enemy, and as soon as that's accomplished, they turn and start killing each other. This internal instability is a constant invitation to outside forces to come in. I have to think that after the awful years of the Taliban, most Afghans would want to remain at peace, and get the benefits of the new freedom they've found. But I can't be sure that old habits won't reassert themselves.

The consequence of a world full of nuclear powers to me is so incomprehensible in terms of the dangers that that implies.