A biography for David Ignatiushasn’t been written yet.
“Fear brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. It's a test of character, for individuals and nations.”
“World War II provides a string of celebrated cases of deception and manipulation.”
“Experts say that Britain and France have strong spy agencies; Germany's is competent but afraid to level with its public; the rest are relatively weak, and there is no Europe-wide spy agency.”
“Moscow and Washington have evolved a delicate process for 'de-confliction' in the tight Syrian airspace, where accidents or miscommunication could be disastrous.”
“A world in which there are no secrets that can be protected at all is going to be a pretty dangerous world.”
“It's a genuine dilemma for governments, deciding how much information to share in this threat-filled era.”
“'Cyber-security' is one of those hot topics that has launched a thousand seminars and strategy papers without producing much in the way of policy.”
“Apple chief executive Tim Cook is such a respected figure that it's easy to overlook the basic problem with his argument about encryption: Cook is asserting that a private company and the interests of its customers should prevail over the public's interest as expressed by our courts.”
“We're grappling with the same issue facing all advanced economies - how to revive growth and distribute its fruits more fairly. An America that can tackle that problem head-on can perhaps help revive a stagnant global economy.”
“Chinese experts noted that the U.S. economy has rebounded from the 2008 crash more strongly than some analysts here had expected, while China's own growth is slowing after several decades of rocket-ship acceleration.”
“This is a universal human dream - that brains, not brawn, will rule - and the fact that America has the world's finest institutions of higher education may be our greatest single national asset.”
“The Chinese are planning a manned mission to the moon sometime after 2020, and subsequently, to Mars. The U.S. has abandoned that dream.”
“The nation's chronic weakness is its political system, which is nearing dysfunction. If the U.S. can elect better political leadership, it should be able to manage problems better than most competitors.”
“The revival of the U.S. financial system after the crash of 2008 is arguably the Obama administration's biggest domestic policy success.”
“Saudi Arabia is a frightened monarchy. It's beset by Sunni extremists from the Islamic State and Shiite extremists backed by Iran.”
“Foreign policy is about the execution of ideas as much as their formulation.”
“During an economic crisis, what matters is that the government keeps its foot on the accelerator.”
“Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Centcom, is probably the most decorated officer of his generation.”
“Sometimes good countries are so traumatized by events that they lose their bearings and embrace bad leaders.”
“CIA officers aren't idiots. They knew they were heading into deep water - legally and morally - when they signed up for the interrogation program. That's part of the agency's ethos - doing the hard jobs that other departments prudently avoid.”