Silence in the face of atrocity is not neutrality; silence in the face of atrocity is acquiescence.

We know that often holding those who have carried out mass atrocities accountable is at times our best tool to prevent future atrocities.

Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the "national interest" as a whole is defined and pursued.... America's important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive.

I like to think that as I get older I'm getting better at spending time with people who have qualities that make them worth spending time with.

Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.

You've got to deploy serious political assets around a plan [in Darfur]. And the George W.] Bush administration has never had a plan. Ever. The Europeans don't want to do anything, saying, "The Americans are in charge of that." And in fact the Americans are in charge of naming it and bringing these resolutions every few weeks to the Security Council.

American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term.