Author

I'd love to have a proper sailing boat and go around the world.

You can't negotiate in public. People won't make concessions in public. They will do that in private. Like sausage making, you have to do it behind closed doors.

From Jonathan Powell

Terrorism is resorted to for practical reasons because there is no other tool available. And those who use terrorism, and then subsequently become the targets of terrorism, understand its power and how difficult it is to counter it. Not just militarily. But especially in terms of international perception.

From Jonathan Powell

9/11 changed America fundamentally, far more so than outsiders realised at the time. For Americans, it genuinely was a new Pearl Harbour: an attack on the homeland that made them feel vulnerable for the first time in 60 years.

From Jonathan Powell

There is no conflict in the world that cannot be solved.

From Jonathan Powell

I'm of the establishment but anti-establishment.

From Jonathan Powell

Every time we meet a new terrorist group, we argue they are utterly different and we can learn nothing from the last time. Of course they are different, but some lessons on how we deal with them seem to apply in all cases.

From Jonathan Powell

The Israeli people are skeptical about the chances of a long-term peace, but if they saw it, they'd grab it. Any Israeli government that wants to be reelected should be interested in a lasting peace.

From Jonathan Powell

Terrorism seems to be the ugly twin of democracy. We need to learn to live with it because we are vulnerable to it.

From Jonathan Powell

When it comes to terrorism, governments seem to suffer from a collective amnesia. All of our historical experience tells us that there can be no purely military solution to a political problem, and yet every time we confront a new terrorist group, we begin by insisting we will never talk to them.

From Jonathan Powell

Jonathan Powell

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