Virtually all of Darfur’s six million residents are Muslim, and, because of decades of intermarriage, almost everyone has dark skin and African features. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
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
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. – Samantha Power
I have only so many foreign-language neurons. When I learned Spanish, that displaced whatever Irish was left, and then I learned German, and that displaced the Spanish, and when I learned Serbo-Croatian, that displaced the German. So I’m a bit of a muddle. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
In the absence of full-fledged Congressional investigations, American policymakers rarely look back. They are bound by continuity and fealty across administrations and generations. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
We know that often holding those who have carried out mass atrocities accountable is at times our best tool to prevent future atrocities. – Samantha Power
Syria is important because it lies at the heart of a region critical to U.S. security, a region that is home to friends and partners and one of our closest allies. It is important because the Syrian regime possesses stores of chemical weapons that they have recently used on a large scale and that we cannot allow to fall into terrorists’ hands. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
Serving in the executive branch is very different than sounding off from an academic perch. – Samantha Power
Brokenness is the operative issue of our time – broken souls, broken hearts, broken places. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power
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.’ – Samantha Power
President Reagan, of course, did more than any other person to entrench the Republican reputation for toughness on national security. – Samantha Power
For me, it’s not an option to despair. The question is: what can we do to make someone’s life better? Take the unimaginable strides made in places like Bosnia, where I cut my teeth, and Rwanda. Their stories aren’t perfect, but I wouldn’t have dreamt they could happen in a million years. – Samantha Power
The U.N. brings everybody together. And without it, we can’t deal with Ebola or terrorism or climate change. But it’s 70 years old. It’s tired. It’s acquired a lot of bad habits. And often it feels like only new bad habits get added and old bad habits don’t get taken away. – Samantha Power
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.’ – Samantha Power
I was extremely close to my father, inseparable. Where we hung out most of the time was the pub. – Samantha Power
India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability. – Samantha Power
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. – Samantha Power