Samantha Power Quotes

One of the things that a president needs in the face of genocide is resolve.

My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed.

In the '90s, there was scant presidential leadership and insufficient domestic political mobilization for foreign policy grounded in human rights.

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.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.

We know that often holding those who have carried out mass atrocities accountable is at times our best tool to prevent future atrocities.

It is easy to get used to the morning news, habituated. But don't. The morning news is yours to alter.

Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.

Success is not about who never fails. It is about who can spring - or even stagger - back up.

The United Staes had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred,

Since 9/11, there has been a huge leap in people wanting to get personally involved in public service and international affairs.

Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.

By 2003 he had begun to worry that powerful countries were pursuing their own security in ways that aggravated their peril. He

American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term.

Silence in the face of atrocity is not neutrality; silence in the face of atrocity is acquiescence.

Without investing in the rule of law for the poor, none of the other investments we make will be sustainable.

Re-examining our reasoning is not something that has come naturally to American statesmen.

I believe the United States is the greatest country on Earth. I really do.

Countries that intervene militarily rarely do so out of pure altruism.

There is a convergence of crises that makes it challenging to keep the world's attention.

Violence against women isn't cultural, it's criminal. Equality cannot come eventually, it's something we must fight for now.

India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability.

Over the years, Western governments have been criticized for working with foreign police who have proved abusive or corrupt.

We need to deter the Palestinians in any way we can.

I happen to miss the Constitution; I thought it was a good document.

The U.S. government engages with many countries around the world in official dialogues on human rights.

International institutions are composed of governments. Governments control their own military forces and police.

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.

Engaging Iran won't guarantee improved U.S.-Iranian relations or a more stable Gulf region. But not engaging means more of the same.

Brokenness is the operative issue of our time - broken souls, broken hearts, broken places.

What is most needed in Darfur is an international peacekeeping and protection presence, and this is what the Sudanese government most wants to avoid.

Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.

President Reagan, of course, did more than any other person to entrench the Republican reputation for toughness on national security.

If you represent everyone, in some ways you represent no one. You're un-owned.