That was pretty smooth, because you don`t want something to go wrong when you have a whole senior level of actings. That`s not a position you want to be in. It`s OK to replace your team, but usually you want them to be in place until the new people are confirmed.

Daniel Fried

Categorized in : Team Want Something Senior

Nationalism is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.

Daniel Fried

drunk alcohol firsts

We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan

Daniel Fried

request uzbekistan government

The world should contemplate a nuclear weapons-armed Iran with the greatest of concern.

Daniel Fried

nuclear iran world

ISIS is the near-term threat, and that the longer - or the mid-term challenge is managing the rise of China. There's some evidence that that's the thinking of the [Donald Trump] administration. That's a perfectly reasonable approach. Well, if that's the case, then you surely want to have a united West to deal with both, and you want to have Russia alongside, but maybe not this Russia while it's busy trying to undermine your chief asset, which is a united West.

Daniel Fried

isis russia thinking

At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that.

Daniel Fried

flag-burning flags country

Partisanship is not part of my professional makeup.

Daniel Fried

partisanship makeup

Diminish us across the board. They [Russians] do not wish us well.

Daniel Fried

wells boards wish

It's said that Putin can't stand Hillary Clinton. I don't know that for a fact, but it certainly looks that way, but I think her approach to Russia stands up pretty well.

Daniel Fried

russia facts thinking

I think that Hillary Clinton has an appreciation that American power needs to be put in the service of American values, which is an American tradition and a pretty good one, and I think she was willing to do that.

Daniel Fried

appreciation needs thinking

I'm one of the many people who has said that the Hillary Clinton we know in private was effective, strong, courageous, and funny. And the campaigner we saw was less so, more scripted. Many people have made that observation, and it was my observation, too, but I'm grateful for what she did.

Daniel Fried

grateful strong people

There are lots of secretaries who send off special envoys and yes, say, "Do a great job," and that's fine until it costs you something. And then they cut you off.

Daniel Fried

cutting special jobs

Diplomacy is not merely talking somebody into something; it's talking to somebody from a position of strength. You put your power on the table to open up the conversation; that's diplomacy.

Daniel Fried

tables conversation talking

John Kerry tried to work with the Russians on Syria, and the man was honorable, because he was trying to do the right thing, and frankly, playing a very weak hand, a hand that was weak not because of him, okay. He did the best he could, but I will say this to his enormous credit: he never offered a dirty deal. You can have Ukraine if you only help us out on Syria. Never - he never did that.

Daniel Fried

ukraine men dirty

No great power is ever satisfied with its sphere of influence. They never are.

Daniel Fried

sphere-of-influence spheres satisfied

Realism as a foreign policy doctrine means basically you don't care about values; you consider them a luxury, and it leads to a kind of acquiescence in spheres of influence. Now, spheres of influence sound good if you're a graduate student, or a certain kind of - an academic with a certain habit of mind. But in fact, spheres of influence don't work out very well, certainly not for the victims, and there are always victims.

Daniel Fried

luxury work-out mean

Be careful about a policy generated with enthusiasm in the rush of a moment. It usually doesn't turn out well.

Daniel Fried

be-careful moments enthusiasm

Realism is important in foreign policy. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, and about the pitfalls, and problems along the way, of which there are plenty. Nothing is easy. It's always rough.

Daniel Fried

pitfalls important way

They [Russians] are the adversary, they - we`re the adversary they love to hate.

Daniel Fried

adversaries love-hate hate

Both the Bush people and [Barack] Obama people had no problem working with the holdovers. They weren`t out to get them.

Daniel Fried

barack problem people

[Russians] want to bring us down to make them feel better about the failure of the Soviet Union. I don`t mean bring us down as in collapse, but bring us down a notch in a big way.

Daniel Fried

unions feel-better mean