Syria is a civil war. Syria began as a popular uprising, just like the other experiences in the Arab Spring, with a repressive government that responded by basically killing the protesters. It's not a genocide, it's a war, and there's a difference. Genocide is a preplanned attack on people because of who they are. This is a interstate conflict.

I don't have time to think about the false controversy.

We should learn to tolerate nuclear weapons of North Korea just like we did the Soviet Union.

Iran's economy is now shrinking by 1 percent a year. Its oil production is down 40 percent.

I've been very lucky to have had a supportive family, a great education, enormous opportunity and challenge.

The youth thing never really, from my vantage point, slowed me down. I think the harder audience for me to gain acceptance from was the career diplomatic corps that worked with and for me in the Africa Bureau.

There are no cookie-cutter solutions that you can apply from one circumstance to another. They're different. Our interests, as implicated, are different. The tools we have at our disposal are different.