Back channels themselves are as old as American diplomacy. Thomas Jefferson was an early enthusiast - he often routed around his secretary of state, once sending a secret letter to the American envoy in France, Robert Livingston, that contained a coded message.

David E. Sanger

Categorized in : Back Old Secret Diplomacy

When confronted with a direct threat to American security, Obama has shown he is willing to act unilaterally - in a targeted, get-in-and-get-out fashion, that avoids, at all costs, the kind of messy ground wars and lengthy occupations that have drained America's treasury and spirit for the past decades.

David E. Sanger

messy security fashion past

Cyberattacks have long been hard to stop because determining where they come from takes time - and sometimes the mystery is never solved.

David E. Sanger

mystery time sometimes long

When Japan was on the rise, American governors would come to inspect Toyota City and study 'just in time' manufacturing to increase efficiency; when America was at its peak in the late 1990s, the world beat a path to its venture capitalists.

David E. Sanger

city path time world

The remarkable thing about the Chinese is that they've operated differently than the Russians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. By and large, they have not done destructive hacks.

David E. Sanger

large than about done

After more than two decades of traveling with American presidents and chief diplomats - on visits to places that have included some of the world's most repressive nations - I am used to watching leaders disappear behind closed doors.

David E. Sanger

behind i-am doors world

When Russia's intelligence agencies obtained some of the National Security Agency's secrets about its own cyberweapons, it appeared to do so by manipulating a virus protection program sold by Kaspersky, a Russian firm.

David E. Sanger

secrets own security intelligence

In the old nuclear age, you could sit under a big screen under a mountain in Colorado, and you could see where the missiles were coming from.

David E. Sanger

see you mountain age

If there's a cyberattack from China or Russia or Romania or Mexico, it may well run through a server in another country. And it may take months before you know where it really came from.

David E. Sanger

run know you country

There are a lot of columnists who get out and opine.

David E. Sanger

lot out get who

Unfettered markets eventually get out of whack.

David E. Sanger

eventually markets out get

Bloggers are not reporters.

David E. Sanger

bloggers reporters

Never mention a web site is coming until it's already there.

David E. Sanger

web until coming never

We had a great chance in the mid-2000s to reach an accord with the Chinese on both energy and environmental issues. That deal would have essentially been that the U.S. could provide the equipment and expertise, and the Chinese would help close the trade gap. It was a huge opportunity that we failed to exploit.

David E. Sanger

help great environmental opportunity

The United States lost a bit of the moral high ground when it comes to warning the world of the danger of cyberattacks.

David E. Sanger

high moral lost world

In an age of reckonings, when so many bills have come due, Obama has made the case for an America that can no longer do it all. It must pick its fights.

David E. Sanger

come bills age america

The government does not deny it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security.

David E. Sanger

american economic security government

In the Chinese view, the United States has designed its own system of rules about what constitutes 'legal' spying and what is illegal.

David E. Sanger

legal rules view own

State oil companies in Saudi Arabia, Africa, Iran, and Mexico have often been intelligence targets for the United States.

David E. Sanger

africa mexico intelligence oil

American officials sometimes dig into corporations because they are suspected to be witting or unwitting suppliers of technology to the North Koreans or the Iranians.

David E. Sanger

american because technology sometimes

There's this incredibly young, dynamic, educated population in Iran that is essentially pretty pro-American.

David E. Sanger

pretty population educated young