The African states agreed after long debate and discussion to establish an African nuclear-weapons free zone – there’s only one hitch, the United States won’t go along. ibid.
The most important political question on which modern times have to decide is the policy that must now be pursued, in order to maintain the security of Western Europe, against the overgrown power of Russia. John Mitchell, Thoughts on Tactics, 1838
Muddle and meddle. Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, re Lord John Russell’s foreign policy, speech 4th February 1864
Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William E Gladstone
We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America’s friends from her enemies, and recognizes the true threats that we face. Sarah Palin
The American’ foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions. Henry Kissinger
United States’ foreign policy, which includes national security, is literally disintegrating before our eyes. Rush Limbaugh
The goal of Australian’ foreign policy should be to promote the maximum harmony between the US and China. John Howard
American’ decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term. Samantha Power
Foreign policy is effectively the assertion of many individual countries intersecting on the global marketplace. And you have to figure out how to get your interest served in a way that meets the interests and needs of these other folks. John F Kerry
Many American pundits and foreign policy experts love to depict themselves as crusaders for human rights, but it almost always takes the form of condemning other governments, never their own. Glenn Greenwald
If US foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. Ward Churchill
The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy. Ramsey Clark
Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government does it to somebody else. This is the idea behind foreign policy. P J O’Rourke
For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world – but it doesn’t happen twice. Madeleine Albright
The problem with the US’ foreign policy is that we’re just so unbelievably powerful. And when you’ve got that kind of power, it’s very hard not to use it. Stanley Hauerwas
Therefore I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. Lord Palmerston
International affairs should never be run by gentlemen amateurs. The Remains of the Day 1993 starring Anthony Hopkins & Emma Thompson & James Fox & Christopher Reeve & Peter Vaughan & Hugh Grant & John Haycraft & Caroline Hunt & Ben Chaplin & Tim Pigott-Smith et al, director James Ivory
Genuinely, there is real affection [US/UK] based on a common sacrifice in war, on blood, on language, on literature … an extraordinary durability of English imagery and culture … There’s something in the relationship that tends to reinforce the conservative and the commercial. Christopher Hitchens vs William F Buckley, Is England Still Influencing America? Firing Line 1990
The British government in other words it’s quite prepared to find out second what American military nuclear policy is even though it’s committed its country and its national territory as a forward base. ibid.
1956: Yet if the previously secret document I am holding is genuine, travelling between London and Paris might have been a mere domestic jaunt … ‘Franco/British union’ … Half a century ago the British and French governments were actually discussing a suggestion … to actually merge the two countries. Document: The Marriage Cordiale, Radio 4 2007
But Goldsmith was beginning to suffer from delusions of grandeur: he forgot that he was no more than a creature of the banks. And having taken over control of industry from the state, he decided he now had the power and the money to take over foreign policy as well. And the first thing he decided he would do was undermine the Soviet Union. Goldsmith believed that the growing anti-nuclear movement in the West was completely controlled by the Soviet Union; so he and a number of right-wing tycoons set up a private organisation to undermine the peace movement. Goldsmith was going to privatise Western Intelligence. Goldsmith’s main target was the World Peace Council, an innocuous and ineffectual organisation. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set III: Destroy the Technostructure, BBC 1999
Goldsmith’s belief that he was powerful was a fantasy. The men who really had the power were the bankers. They were using Goldsmith’s bullying nature as a weapon to break down the corporations. But the banks themselves were about to fall from grace. And Goldsmith would be left helpless and exposed. ibid.
For over a decade Vladimir Putin has been the undisputed master of Russia. But after claims he fixed parliamentary elections, tens of thousands of middle-class Russians took to the streets demanding his resignation. They put on a symbol of protest – white ribbons. Putin, Russia and the West I, BBC 2022
This is the story of how he dominated Russia, tried to dominate its neighbours and how the West dealt with him. ibid.
Now he faced an even more powerful opponent – America’s new president. The challenge came soon after George W Bush was inaugurated. ibid.
In 2006 Vladimir Putin launched a campaign against those he considered to be Russia’s enemies. The Russian government released video of a fake rock which they said was being used by British spies in Russia. Putin, Russia and the West II: Democracy Threatens
US special forces arrived in Georgia. They helped expel the Chechens. But then they stayed on. And American interests there grew. ibid.
[Mikheil] Saakashvili said he would make Georgia a member of Nato. ibid.
It soon became clear that [Viktor] Yushchenko was very ill. He was flown to a private clinic in Vienna where he was found to have been poisoned by a huge dose of dioxin. ibid.
Three weeks later Yushchenko won the re-run decisively. ibid.
Washington received Yushchenko like a hero. ibid.
Such triumphs for democracy on Russia’s borders scared the Kremlin. ibid.
The atmosphere in Russia turned uglier. Nationalist gangs beat up migrant workers. ibid.
Litvinenko became a British citizen. Ten days later he was poisoned with radioactive Polonium. ibid.
In the summer of 2008 Russia was at war with America’s ally, Georgia. But little stood between Russia’s army and Georgia’s capital. Putin, Russia and the West III: War
America must send military help. In the White House Bush’s team weighed their options. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers had never been so close to war. ibid.
The American secretary of state [Rice] came to Moscow. ibid.
‘You tell the president that I’ll do what I need to do. And it was pretty hard-edged.’ ibid. Rice, re [a-lootin’ rootin’ shootin’] Putin
President Bush had no intention of giving up on the bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. ibid.
By recognising a breakaway state [Kosovo], Bush unintentionally reignited a conflict between its allies Georgia and Russia. ibid.
Georgians and separatists shelled each other. ibid.
But now a new American President was in charge and he was coming to town. Obama was making a big investment in the Russian President, but was he talking to the right man? Putin, Russia and the West IV
A populist revolution in Iran, hostage crisis at an embassy, in Mecca the assassination of an Egyptian head of state, a military invasion in Afghanistan, a series of terrorist attacks in the Philippines, an official reception in Washington DC. All these events are pieces of a giant puzzle scattered around the world. The Terror Routes I: 1979-1993: They Were On the Side of the Angels, Amazon 2011
We should attempt to follow that road: it winds through a transforming Arab world, a crumbling Soviet empire, and an American nation at the hands of would-be sorcerers, the object of mounting hatred. ibid.
Kabul, Afghanistan, 24th December 1979: Operation Storm 333 has just begun. That is the codename given by the Soviets for the invasion of Afghanistan. ibid.
All along the road leading to September 11th are a number of men who are part of an Islamic galaxy. ibid.
Ayman al-Zawahiri is released after three years spent in Egyptian jails. Under torture, he reveals the names of a number of underground Islamist leaders. There years are crucial in al-Zawahiri’s evolution. They only served to reinforce his radicalism. ibid.
Peshawar near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan is now a strategic hub in the war against the Soviets. Support for Afghan rebels, the Mujahideen, is organised with the help of western powers led by the United States. ibid.
‘Ali Muhammad created the encyclopaedia of jihad, the training syllabus that was used extensively in Afghanistan.’ ibid. US man in the know
‘Reagan openly supported jihadists, including some that are now fighting us.’ ibid.
‘Everybody took credit for it but they all forgot that there was this Islamic muscle which took credit for Allah. And nobody thought of devising some sort of a strategy or policy to contain this muscle. Indeed, they did the opposite.’ ibid.
‘I don’t know why the blind sheikh was issued with a visa to come to the United States.’ ibid.