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

When dictators feel their support slipping among adults, it is not unusual for them to alter school textbooks in the hope of enlisting impressionable youths in their cause.

You could be in the United Nations office all night every night and still feel like you were not making a sufficient dent in the world's problems. I think the key is prioritization. But every job presents the tyranny of the inbox, of allowing the urgent to crowd out the important. So we have to have our lodestars.

Over the years, Western governments have been criticized for working with foreign police who have proved abusive or corrupt.

When I wake up in the morning, I think about Syria.

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

When it came to the Vietnam War, Mr. McNamara was an early advocate of escalation but came to realize the flaws in the American approach earlier than many of his colleagues. Yet in public, he continued to defend the war.