Edward Luck Quotations

I think Syria is in a particularly sensitive geopolitical position in terms of the politics of the Middle East.

Enormous slaughter may have been acceptable in previous centuries. It simply isn't acceptable anymore.

Iranians are very proud and don't want to become a pariah state like North Korea.

The reforms on the table really get to the meat of the matter, which is changing an institution envisioned for the post-World War II period to work in a very changed world. The challenge now is that after so much attention to expanding the Security Council, this package sounds like leftovers - when it's really the meat and potatoes of reform.

So I've gone in and out of the U.N., working on counter-terrorism, on U.N. reform, on peacekeeping, peace and security issues, many things through the years but always with a strong interest in humanitarian issues, and human rights issues as well.

I've been involved in and out of the U.N. for many years - in fact my first internship was in 1971, so it goes back a couple of years!

So I've gone in and out of the U.N., working on counter-terrorism, on U.N. reform, on peacekeeping, peace and security issues, many things through the years but always with a strong interest in humanitarian issues, and human rights issues as well.

If you are going to have a Security Council with more members, are you going to reserve 10 seats automatically on all these bodies? That would mean all these bodies would have to be pretty big to accomplish that.

I think it is a rather awkward situation and these things are usually worked out quietly. The more we play up this privilege, the more other members are going to dig in. You don't necessarily do yourself a favor by trumpeting the issue.

I think there is a real worry in Washington that if one of the criteria (for membership on the human rights council) becomes the ratification of human rights treaties, that the U.S. will have a hard time getting on.

I've been involved in and out of the U.N. for many years - in fact my first internship was in 1971, so it goes back a couple of years!

One gets the impression that other countries are suspicious that the secretary general and his aides are really puppets being manipulated by Washington.

It looks like it could be a real train wreck. It's a basic clash over who's in charge: Is it the General Assembly or is it the secretary general?

These people should have been put under a watch list; to let them creep back into procurement is the height of irresponsibility. Reform, in the end, is really a question of people and you can put in all the rules and regulations you want, but clever determined people who know the system well will find a way of getting around the rules.

Instead of the bull in the china shop, Bolton's more like the little boy who is audacious enough to say the U.N. has no clothes.

The idea of having a real transition period makes eminent sense, and most member states would tend to agree in theory. The problem is, can they settle on a candidate by the middle of the year? It would be a major triumph, but I'm not betting the farm on it.