I've worked for four presidents, and I've concluded that almost nothing is inevitable. History is to a significant extent the result of the interaction of personalities and ideas. And so I don't believe war between the U.S. and China is in any way inevitable, and it's well within the province of diplomacy and statecraft to avoid it.

Richard N. Haass

More Quotes by Richard N. Haass
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More Quotes From Richard N. Haass

Hillary Clinton is pretty much what we would call a foreign-policy realist, someone who thinks the purpose of American foreign policy should be to adjust the foreign policies of other countries, work closely with traditional allies in Europe and Asia towards that end.

Richard N. Haass
europe country thinking

Well, we ought to make clear to everybody that the next Korean War, if one were ever to happen, is going to be the last Korean War because it's going to end with a unified peninsula, and it's go to be under Seoul, not Pyongyang.

Richard N. Haass
korean war
States would be wise to weaken sovereignty in order to protect th... by Richard N. Haass

States would be wise to weaken sovereignty in order to protect themselves.

Richard N. Haass
would-be wise order
Globalisation thus implies that sovereignty...needs to become wea... by Richard N. Haass

Globalisation thus implies that sovereignty...needs to become weaker.

Richard N. Haass
globalisation sovereignty needs

The upper hand is with those who are pushing regime change rather than those who are advocating more diplomacy.

Richard N. Haass
upper-hand pushing hands
Television was our chief tool in selling our policy. by Richard N. Haass

Television was our chief tool in selling our policy.

Richard N. Haass
propaganda tools television

We ought to be doing much more in North America. We are on the cusp of an energy revolution. And we do need to be doing more at home. The biggest national security threats facing the United States right now are not in the Middle East. They are domestic.

Richard N. Haass
revolution energy home

China likes the idea of sovereign rights when it comes to organizing their politics as they see fit, and their economics. But they may grudgingly come to understand certain things differently in the area of climate or disease. China is a country fairly integrated into the world. Yet China is uncomfortable with this idea because they worry it will constrain their freedom, politically and economically, to do what they believe they need to do to maintain political stability and cohesion.

Richard N. Haass
worry believe country

Jerusalem is a holy site for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Israelis and Palestinians both lay claim to it as their capital. Jerusalem is the most sensitive of all the issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. But Donald Trump determined an important aspect of the United States' position towards Jerusalem before any agreement. Most of the rest of the world feels that it ought not to be dealt with first, that it ought not to be dealt with separately, and that it ought not to be dealt with unilaterally.

Richard N. Haass
important christian world

I think Hillary Clinton is more suspicious, clearly tougher on Russian policy in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria; more willing to support sanctions; not against negotiating with Putin, but I would say tougher and more skeptical. And Donald Trump has talked about revisiting policy towards Ukraine, revisiting policy about sanctions towards Russia, not as quick to criticize Putin for what he might be up to in Syria and propping up the regime there - so just seems to be more open to the possibilities of working out some kind of a - I guess you'd call a modus vivendi with Putin.

Richard N. Haass
ukraine russia thinking
Shockingly enough, what people say during campaigns is meant to i... by Richard N. Haass

Shockingly enough, what people say during campaigns is meant to increase the odds they get elected.

Richard N. Haass
campaigns odds people
Sovereignty must be redefined if states are to cope with globalis... by Richard N. Haass

Sovereignty must be redefined if states are to cope with globalisation.

Richard N. Haass
sovereignty states ifs

Some governments are prepared to give up elements of sovereignty to address the threat of global climate change.

Richard N. Haass
addresses giving-up government

You cannot be effective if those who work for you are not. So building their effectiveness ought to be a priority.

Richard N. Haass
effectiveness priorities leadership

I think it was going to be hard to work with Russians on Syria. There is some potential overlap between the U.S. and Russia in that the Russians don't want to see the Syria situation unravel to a point where they have to escalate their own involvement. But at the moment, I don't see the U.S. and Russia on the same page in Syria. Russia seems much more interested in consolidating government control over liberated areas. It seems to me that the U.S. and Russia are proving they can disagree for independent reasons in any number of theaters.

Richard N. Haass
independent moments thinking

The reason I called the president Donald Trump a disrupter is that he came into office 70 years after World War II, 25-plus years after the end of the Cold War. Like any president, he didn't come into office with a blank slate - he entered with an enormous inheritance of relationships with institutions, policies and the like. And in my view he is much too quick to pull the U.S. out of various institutions and various agreements, and he's been much too quick to question the value of allies and alliances.

Richard N. Haass
office president war

The U.S. position on Jerusalem was not the reason why there hasn't been progress towards peace. The reason is that both the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership are divided. And there is an enormous gap between Israelis and Palestinians. To say that this decision is only recognizing reality, that Jerusalem is the actual capital of Israel - well, that's true. But it's a selective recognition of reality.

Richard N. Haass
progress decision reality

If the president Donald Trump had connected the Jerusalem question to some other positions, linking it to Israeli and Palestinian behavior or putting the Jerusalem statement in a larger context of U.S. policy, it could have potentially advanced the peace process. But I don't see how singling it out might help.

Richard N. Haass
behavior president helping

If there's any country that has the capacity not to control North Korea, but to influence North Korea, it's still China. The Chinese always say they have very little influence. They have more than they say they do. We should put pressure on them to do it and there's finally, we're seeing the first signs of a little bit of Chinese disaffection. At some point they're getting tired of the antics of this country. This is a dangerous ally for China to have. And the more Chinese can pressure them and put the economic screws on them, the better it will be for everybody.

Richard N. Haass
chinese tired country

Donald Trump is much more suspicious of international institutions; much more skeptical of the contributions that America's traditional allies have made; more willing, in some cases, to entertain the possibility of getting along with countries who some would call an adversary, such as Mr. Putin's Russia.

Richard N. Haass
russia country america