To be sure, many of the Sykes-Picot borders reflected deals cut in Europe rather than local demographic or historical realities. But that hardly makes the Middle East unique: Most borders around the world owe their legacy less to thoughtful design or popular choice than to some mixture of violence, ambition, geography, and chance.

Richard N. Haass

Design Chance World

Nationalism is a tool increasingly used by leaders to bolster their authority, especially amid difficult economic and political conditions.

Richard N. Haass

Used Use Us

Good people cannot fully compensate for bad process, but they can mitigate some of its worst tendencies.

Richard N. Haass

Good Worst Tendencies

Success in foreign policy, as in carpentry, requires the right tools for the job.

Richard N. Haass

Success Car Try

If Trump, for whatever reason, continues to coddle Russia, then Congress, the media, foundations, and academics should publicly detail the corruption that characterizes Putin's rule.

Richard N. Haass

Whatever Us Up

Wars of necessity are essentially unavoidable. They involve the most important national interests, a lack of promising alternatives to the use of force, and a certain and considerable price to be paid if the status quo is allowed to stand. Examples include World War II and the Korean War.

Richard N. Haass

War World War II World War

I believe in diplomacy; I don't believe in talking to... that talking to Iran somehow constitutes a concession or a favour.

Richard N. Haass

Talking Talk T

Europeans must shed their illusions about what they can accomplish in the world on their own. Loose talk about resurrecting a multi-polar world is just that - loose talk.

Richard N. Haass

World Us Tin

Dissent is difficult. It can constitute a real dilemma for the person who disagrees.

Richard N. Haass

Who T Son

It is difficult to think of a foreign policy issue that preoccupies and polarizes world opinion as much as the Palestinian question.

Richard N. Haass

World Up Tin

Speaking truth to power is actually a form of loyalty.

Richard N. Haass

Truth Power Ya

Unrestrained zeal to make the world better could make it worse. Promoting democracy must be undertaken with humility, care, and wisdom.

Richard N. Haass

Wisdom Car Zeal

Diplomacy can and will matter; little is inevitable in international relations.

Richard N. Haass

Will Table T

Indeed, in foreign policymaking, inconsistency is often a virtue. I speak not of principles but of policy.

Richard N. Haass

Virtue Ten T

To be sure, many of the Sykes-Picot borders reflected deals cut in Europe rather than local demographic or historical realities. But that hardly makes the Middle East unique: Most borders around the world owe their legacy less to thoughtful design or popular choice than to some mixture of violence, ambition, geography, and chance.

Richard N. Haass

Design Chance World

A China that trades extensively with the U.S. and its Asian neighbors will think twice before it pursues any policy that would place those relationships at risk. Likewise, trade between India and Pakistan could contribute to the normalization of ties between these long-estranged neighbors.

Richard N. Haass

Relationship Would Wit

We all have some basic obligation to one another.

Richard N. Haass

T Some Other

I am confident in saying that Oberlin did more for me than vice versa. I took a fantastic class in religion, which led me to archaeology, which got me to the Middle East, which led me to international relations, which launched me on my career.

Richard N. Haass

Religion Car Yin

The political world is defined by relationships rather than transactions, and by numerous actors at home and abroad with independent power. Navigating such a world is difficult and precarious.

Richard N. Haass

Relationship Power Home

Black markets exist any time there is a profit to be made.

Richard N. Haass

Time Tim T

Not every threat to America's national interests can be addressed with military power.

Richard N. Haass

Power Wit Very

For too long, America tolerated a 'democratic exception' in the Muslim Middle East. As long as governments were friendly and backed regional stability, there was no need for outsiders to encourage representative government.

Richard N. Haass

If old American alliance commitments don't count for as much, countries will, in some cases, then say, 'Well, we've got to militarize in certain ways and act more independently.'

Richard N. Haass

In a world in which the United States does less, whatever set of calculations, other countries will tend to calculate - to move in one of two ways. Either they will assuage or, to use a more loaded term, appease the strongest power in the neighborhood with all the consequences of that, or they will determine to take matters into their own hands.

Richard N. Haass

Living with a nuclear North Korea could give its leaders the confidence to act more aggressively versus South Korea. It could also, over time, drive both South Korea and Japan, as well as countries farther afield such as Vietnam, to reconsider their non-nuclear postures. The stability of a critical region of the world would suddenly be in doubt.

Richard N. Haass

What countries must do to join the World Trade Organization is precisely what they must do to become productive and democratic: accept the rule of law, reduce corruption, and become open, accountable, and transparent.

Richard N. Haass

American influence in the world depends on the ability to act with real capacity and set an example that others will want to follow. This all takes resources.

Richard N. Haass

Democracy requires an informed citizenry able to question its government.

Richard N. Haass

Terrorists and terrorism cannot be eliminated any more than we can rid the world of disease. There will always be those who will resort to force against innocent men, women, and children in pursuit of political goals.

Richard N. Haass

September 11, 2001, was a terrible tragedy by any measure, but it was not a historical turning point. It did not herald a new era of international relations in which terrorists with a global agenda prevailed or in which such spectacular terrorist attacks became commonplace.

Richard N. Haass

It is in the interest of Americans to find out what those wanting to be president think about a wide range of challenges and what they might do about them. We should want to get their take on the wisdom of past decisions, what they agree and disagree with, and why.

Richard N. Haass

The Internet, one of the great inventions of the modern Western world, has shown itself to be a weapon that can be used to incite and train those who wish to cause harm to that world.

Richard N. Haass

Trade is the all-but-forgotten weapon in the battle against poverty, but it can provide more help to the poor than aid can.

Richard N. Haass

There is a clear norm against the spread of nuclear weapons, but there is no consensus or treaty on what, if anything, is to be done once a country develops or acquires nuclear weapons.

Richard N. Haass

Homegrown terrorists are a real problem for even the most modern, democratic societies.

Richard N. Haass

Modern terrorism is too destructive to be tolerated, much less supported.

Richard N. Haass

America's armed forces are an essential background to much of what the U.S. accomplishes internationally.

Richard N. Haass

Terrorism needs to be de-legitimized in the way that slavery has been. Doing so will make governments and individuals think twice before becoming a party to terrorism; it should also make it less difficult to garner support for international action against those who nevertheless carry it out.

Richard N. Haass

Terrorism is a decentralized phenomenon - in its funding, planning, and execution.

Richard N. Haass

Middle East history is replete with examples of missed and lost chances to make peace.

Richard N. Haass

The U.S. does not want to live under the shadow of a North Korea that possesses long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads to American cities. At the same time, the U.S. has no appetite for a war that would prove costly by every measure.

Richard N. Haass

The Trump administration has been characterized by adhocracy during its initial months. The initiative limiting immigration is a case in point. The new policy was not vetted fully within the administration - indeed, then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates first read the decision after the text of the new executive order was published online.

Richard N. Haass

An open, market-oriented, and peaceful Iraq could also advance reform and growth across the entire region.

Richard N. Haass

Generically, wars in necessity are wars where, I think, the vital interest of the nation are at stake, in which there are no viable alternatives to the use of force.

Richard N. Haass

No one pursuing reasonable goals and who is prepared to compromise can argue that terrorism is his or his group's only option.

Richard N. Haass

The horror and tragedy that was 9/11 did many things; one of them was to galvanize this country and much of the world against terrorists and those who support them.

Richard N. Haass

Terrorists continue to be outliers with limited appeal at best.

Richard N. Haass

Americans were happy to buy vast quantities of relatively inexpensive Chinese manufactured goods, demand for which provided jobs for the tens of millions of Chinese who moved from poor agricultural areas to new or rapidly expanding cities.

Richard N. Haass

The abolition of the presidential term limit and President Xi Jinping's concentration of power have come as an unwelcome surprise to many.

Richard N. Haass

Trump's foreign policy is not so much immoral as it is amoral.

Richard N. Haass

It is important to signal that opposition to the use of any weapon of mass destruction is both deep and broad.

Richard N. Haass