NATO is still the most remarkable alliance in history. It stuck together through 40 years of Cold War, and it then joined together to fight in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, I would not have thought this was going to be possible.

We did not go to war in Afghanistan or in Iraq to, quote, 'impose democracy.' We went to war in both places because we saw those regimes as a threat to the United States.

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.

China, in the future, is going to have even more nuclear capability than it has had in the past. I don't believe that they have anything to fear from the United States, and I frankly don't believe they do fear the United States.

To stay back from an intervention is not always a good solution.

Public action should seek to expand the set of opportunities of those who have the least voice and fewest resources and capabilities.

That sense of what happened in Europe in World War II has shaped a lot of my views.