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Samantha Power [1970-0] Irish

Rank: 101
Public Servant, United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Samantha Jane Power is an Irish-American academic, author and diplomat who currently is the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
Power began her career by covering the Yugoslav Wars as a journalist.

Government, History, Time, Future, Good, Leadership, Space, Trust, War

Quote	Tags	Rank
I like to think that as I get older I'm getting better at spending time with people who have qualities that make them worth spending time with.	Time	101
History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do more harm than good.	Good, History	102
Brokenness is the operative issue of our time - broken souls, broken hearts, broken places.	Time	103
When it came to the Vietnam War, Mr. McNamara was an early advocate of escalation but came to realize the flaws in the American approach earlier than many of his colleagues. Yet in public, he continued to defend the war.	War	104
What is most needed in Darfur is an international peacekeeping and protection presence, and this is what the Sudanese government most wants to avoid.	Government	105
American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term.		106
We know that often holding those who have carried out mass atrocities accountable is at times our best tool to prevent future atrocities.	Future	107
Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a general shrinking of the democratic space.	Government, History, Space, Trust	108
On the rare occasions when U.N. blue helmets have made the news in the past, it has unfortunately too often been in the context of situations where peacekeepers have failed to shield civilians, or even when the peacekeepers themselves have been involved in abuse.		109
I believe the United States is the greatest country on Earth. I really do.		110
Countries that intervene militarily rarely do so out of pure altruism.		111
The economic dynamic in Zimbabwe is perversely robust: while ordinary people suffer, black-market dealers and people with foreign bank accounts prosper, making them powerful stakeholders in the perpetuation of devastating economic policies.		112
When dictators feel their support slipping among adults, it is not unusual for them to alter school textbooks in the hope of enlisting impressionable youths in their cause.		113
My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed.		114
Influence is best measured not only by military hardware and GDP, but also by other people's perceptions that we, the United States, are using our power legitimately. That belief - that we are acting in the interests of the global commons and in accordance with the rule of law - is what the military would call a 'force multiplier.'		115
I got into journalism not to be a journalist but to try to change American foreign policy. I'm a corny person. I was a dreamer predating my journalistic life, so I got into journalism as a means to try to change the world.		116
Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.		117
Americans have long trusted the views of Democrats on the environment, the economy, education, and health care, but national security is the one matter about which Republicans have maintained what political scientists call 'issue ownership.'		118
The story of U.S. policy during the genocide in Rwanda is not a story of willful complicity with evil. U.S. officials did not sit around and conspire to allow genocide to happen.		119
The U.S. government engages with many countries around the world in official dialogues on human rights.		120
One of the things that a president needs in the face of genocide is resolve.		121
Since 9/11, there has been a huge leap in people wanting to get personally involved in public service and international affairs.		122
Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.		123
The performance of international institutions will be symptomatic of the domestic political priorities of influential member states. International institutions don't really have a life and a mind of their own.		124
In many college classes, laptops depict split screens - notes from a class, and then a range of parallel stimulants: NBA playoff statistics on ESPN.com, a flight home on Expedia, a new flirtation on Facebook.		125
No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do.		126
I think I would like the sort of job where you can work away in obscurity to try and improve things, without being caught up in the political maelstrom.		201
Virtually all of Darfur's six million residents are Muslim, and, because of decades of intermarriage, almost everyone has dark skin and African features.		202
In the 2000 election, George W. Bush, who had shirked military service, succeeded in presenting himself as more reliable on national security than Al Gore.		203
As even a democracy like the United States has shown, waging war can benefit a leader in several ways: it can rally citizens around the flag, it can distract them from bleak economic times, and it can enrich a country's elites.		204
When confronting most crises, whether historic or contemporary, aid agencies generally muddle along on a case-by-case basis. They weigh insufficient information, extrapolate somewhat blindly about long-term pros and cons, and reluctantly arrive at decisions meant to do the most good and the least harm.		205
Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.		206
In the '90s, there was scant presidential leadership and insufficient domestic political mobilization for foreign policy grounded in human rights.	Leadership	207
You know, there is a long tradition in the U.S. of, um, promoting elections up to the point that you get an outcome you don't like. Look at Latin America in the Cold War.		208
I happen to miss the Constitution; I thought it was a good document.		209
Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.		210
There are something like 300 anti-genocide chapters on college campuses around the country. It's bigger than the anti-apartheid movement. There are something like 500 high school chapters devoted to stopping the genocide in Darfur. Evangelicals have joined it. Jewish groups have joined it.		211
International institutions are composed of governments. Governments control their own military forces and police.		212
President Obama, like every other leader on Earth, is still going to be looking out for national and economic interests. States don't cease to be states overnight just because they get a great visionary as their new president.		213
I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for. That can encompass our elected officials' adherence to law and our country's return to the Geneva Conventions.		214
When I became director of CIA, it was just clear to me intuitively, without a whole lot of science behind it, that we had expanded rapidly and inefficiently. So I arbitrarily picked a number, 10 percent, and I said over the next 12 months, we are going to reduce our reliance on contractors by 10 percent.		215
India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability.		216
I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for.		217
Re-examining our reasoning is not something that has come naturally to American statesmen.		218
In the absence of full-fledged Congressional investigations, American policymakers rarely look back. They are bound by continuity and fealty across administrations and generations.		219
Some anti-Americanism derives simply from our being a colossus that bestrides the earth. But much anti-Americanism derives from the role U.S. political, economic and military power has played in denying such freedoms to others.		220
All we talk about is 'Islamic terrorism.' If the two words are associated for long enough it's obviously going to have an effect on how people think about Muslims.		221
Over the years, Western governments have been criticized for working with foreign police who have proved abusive or corrupt.		222
President Reagan, of course, did more than any other person to entrench the Republican reputation for toughness on national security.		223
America needs a sensible, sustainable Iran policy that can meet U.S. security and economic interests, command international support and withstand the shifting Middle Eastern sands.		224
Engaging Iran won't guarantee improved U.S.-Iranian relations or a more stable Gulf region. But not engaging means more of the same.		225
Zimbabweans are severely malnourished, and deaths from starvation occur even in the cities. The country has not yet suffered nationwide famine only because international donors have stepped in.		226
I worry about Zimbabweans. They bend, they bend, they bend, they bend - where do the people break? How long can they go on scrounging for food in garbage dumps and using the moisture from sewage drains to plant vegetables?		301
The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.		302
If you represent everyone, in some ways you represent no one. You're un-owned.		303

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