What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.

There are some people who think that at some time in the future, China may challenge us for supremacy in the Pacific, and therefore, what do we do today to prevent that? And you, of course, will say that we will try to thwart any economic progress in China. If we engaged in such a policy, we would turn a billion-plus people into nationalist opponents of the United States.

For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.

Our nation is uniquely endowed to play a creative and decisive role in the new order which is taking form around us.

I have always expressed respect for those people who make public declarations.

For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one. Putin is a serious strategist – on the premises of Russian history. Understanding US values and psychology are not his strong suits. Nor has understanding Russian history and psychology been a strong point among US policymakers.’

Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.