Speech

The State of the State Department

| Feb. 27, 2018

On September 6, 1943, Winston Churchill reminded Harvard students that “the price of greatness is responsibility.” If you want to lead the world, you must be responsible. It’s irresponsible to decimate the Department of State with a 30% budget cut. It’s irresponsible to say we’re going to hit North Korea with a preventive war before we have tried diplomacy. It’s irresponsible to let 12 million Syrians [and counting] live lives of misery because we’re not there to negotiate a difficult peace agreement with the Russians and the Iranians because we have no senior diplomats to do so in the Middle East right now.

For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
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Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns

  • Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Member of the Board, Belfer Center
  • Faculty Chair, Future of Diplomacy Project
  • Faculty Chair, Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship
  • Faculty Affiliate, Middle East Initiative
  • Director, American Secretaries of State Project
Expertise:
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