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" In both Russia and the U.S., there are a very small number of very, very rich people, and then there are a lot of people who don't have anything. The less inequality you have in a society, the more social peace you have. It's kind of a no-brainer. "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Peace

Rich

Small

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" We Estonians will do what is necessary to join the European Union. "

" When your country is in dire straits, it doesn't matter whether you're a social democrat or not. "

" Big data knows and can deduce more about you than Big Brother ever could. "

" Little by little, we're becoming a boring Nordic country. "

" The minute a collective alliance fails to live up to its agreement to collective defence, then from that moment on, everybody is on the run. "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Agreement

Run

" Liberal democracies do not and often cannot respond in kind to cyberattacks on their own way of governance. "

" My American undergraduate education probably gave me a better idea of the fundamentals of what European civilization is about, better than the undergraduate education you get at most European universities. "

" The thing people forget is that the entire world - or, at least, Europe, U.S., transatlantic, Russia, Soviet Union - that security architecture has been in place since 1945 and has been refined. Already, the U.N. charter that everyone signed is that you can't change borders through use of force or even threat of use of force. "

" The Russian Federation's practice of instant citizenship, whereby Russian passports are distributed willy-nilly to ethnic Russians abroad so they can be 'protected' in their current homeland, is unacceptable. Passports are travel documents, not a tool to justify aggression. "

" Diplomacy between a powerful, victorious army and a side that's losing doesn't really work well. "

" In a modern digitalized world, it is possible to paralyze a country without attacking its defense forces: The country can be ruined by simply bringing its SCADA systems to a halt. To impoverish a country, one can erase its banking records. The most sophisticated military technology can be rendered irrelevant. In cyberspace, no country is an island. "

" Where a country lies is a subjective decision and only in part a product of its own desire. Much, if not most, is determined by what others believe about it. "

" I'm an American by accent, and I grew up in the States, living there between the age of three and 24. "

" George Bush and I share a love of steel brush cutters. It turns out we use the same professional brush cutter. He asked me what I did. I said I cut brush. He says, 'Oh, what do you use?' I said steel. He goes, 'Oh, me too.' "

" I realised that if we were not in the E.U., there were people in the E.U. who were also members of NATO that would veto our joining NATO. "

" I remember starting to read about the Soviet Union when I was eight years old; I think I was reading my father's 'New York Times.' "

" The whole information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure must be regarded as an 'ecosystem' in which everything is interconnected. It functions as a whole; it must be defended as a whole. "

" The fake news is - I mean, as a tool of warfare - has been there for decades and decades and decades. It was never very well done until, really, the Ukraine, though I would say that the Russians used to complain about fake things to say the State Department. "

" People have actually figured out that Estonia is one of the few post-Communist countries that has a genuine image in people's minds as being something. "

" When our diplomats go abroad, they are surprised that they can't do the things that they can do here. "

" In cyberwarfare, it is much harder to identify the attacker and, therefore, to know how to retaliate. "

" I was surprised by some of my French colleagues who immediately assumed that because I spoke English with an American accent, that, therefore, you must be a supporter of whoever is the current president of the United States. There seems to be this widespread feeling that, 'Oh, American accent - therefore, you like cowboy boots.' "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Feeling

You

" Democracies stand on several key pillars: Free and fair elections, human rights, the rule of law, and a free untrammeled media. Until 2016, an open media was seen as a resilient democratic pillar that supported the others. "

" Because of cyberattacks and fake news, we can already imagine the problem all democratic societies will face in future elections: how to limit lies when they threaten democracy? "

" Sanctions work over time. They do work, but it takes years for them to have an effect. "

" The problem of online identity is expressed best in an old 'New Yorker' cartoon with a picture of a dog next to a computer, and the dog says, 'No one online knows you're a dog.' "

" When hackers have access to powerful computers that use brute force hacking, they can crack almost any password; even one user with insecure access being successfully hacked can result in a major breach. "

" The E-government cabinet, E-health services, online voting, online pre-filled tax returns, e-mobile parking, are all examples of Estonian innovation, but far more importantly, they are examples of the transformative power of intensive and extensive use of Information Technology in the public sector. "

" I've been in and out of academia ever since I was young. "

" People who come out of the liberal arts don't have an understanding of science and technology, and the people in science and technology have very little experience with liberal arts and the traditions of a liberal democracy. "