Leadership Quote by Gordon Smith

A politician admitting an institution can do only “a few things well” is praise delivered through a narrowed aperture. Gordon Smith’s line reads like a diplomatic slow clap: not a denunciation of the United Nations, but a carefully measured endorsement that signals skepticism to critics while keeping the door open for cooperation. The verb choice matters. “I have concluded” frames the thought as reluctant, evidence-based, almost prosecutorial, implying he started from doubt and arrived at a constrained respect. It’s the rhetoric of a moderate trying to sound tough.

The phrase “a few things” does most of the work. It shrinks the U.N. from a grand moral project into a tool with limited, practical uses. That’s not just a policy view; it’s a political posture designed for audiences who see multilateral bodies as bloated, ineffective, or intrusive. By conceding competence in select areas, Smith avoids the caricature of being anti-internationalist, while validating a domestic mood that expects the U.S. to lead unilaterally or at least set strict terms.

Contextually, this kind of line tends to surface when the U.N. is under scrutiny: peacekeeping failures, contentious resolutions, or moments when sovereignty feels threatened by global governance. Its intent isn’t to map the U.N.’s full record; it’s to draw a boundary around acceptable multilateralism. The subtext: we’ll use the U.N. when it serves clear national interests, and we reserve the right to bypass it when it doesn’t.