Richard Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrookewas an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth24 April 1941
CountryUnited States of America
world would-be stability
A world without the United Nations or with a paralyzed United Nations would be far more costly to all of us and far more dangerous to peace and stability.
country victim aids
If a country denies it has AIDS, that country will inevitably become an even greater victim.
government important heat
Nothing generates more heat in the government than the question of who is chosen to participate in important meetings.
variation jazz endless
Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.
want linear theme
It's an improvisation on a theme. You know where you want to go, but you don't know how to get there. It's not linear.
organization needs united-states
The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.
agreement enemy deals
A peace deal requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends, you make agreements with your enemies.
war world negotiation
World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.
self world wonderful
Know something about something. Don’t just present your wonderful self to the world. Constantly amass knowledge and offer it around.
past thinking needs
I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.
echoes media voice
MEMRI allows an audience far beyond the Arabic-speaking world to observe the wide variety of Arab voices speaking through the media, schoolbooks, and pulpits to their own people. What one hears is often astonishing, sometimes frightening, and always important. Most importantly, it includes the newly-emerging liberal voices of reform and hope, as well as disturbing echoes of ancient hatreds. Without the valuable research of MEMRI, the non-Arabic speaking world would not have this indispensable window.
everywhere gets minister passionate tested travels
I'm passionate about this. He's probably the most tested person in the world. Everywhere he travels he gets tested, preferably with the Minister of Health!
wear
And if you do graze, wear a condom,
decision lucky may
In diplomacy, as in life itself, one often learns more from failures than from successes. Triumphs will seem, in retrospect, to be foreordained, a series of brilliant actions and decisions that may in fact have been lucky or inadvertent, whereas failures illuminate paths and pitfalls to be avoided.