[…] So how should Washington respond to this situation, a middle power aligning itself more closely to America’s interests, aims, and vision than any other ally? As the former foreign minister and prime minister, Lord Palmerston famously said, “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” But the more dramatic line came earlier in the same speech:
As to the romantic notion that nations or Governments are much or permanently influenced by friendships, and God knows what, why, I say that those who maintain those romantic notions, and apply the intercourse of individuals to the intercourse of nations, are indulging in a vain dream. The only thing which makes one Government follow the advice and yield to the counsels of another, is the hope of benefit to accrue from adopting it, or the fear of the consequences of opposing it. Läs artikel
Läs källan till citatet här.