Daily Inspiration Quote by Lawrence Eagleburger

A diplomat’s sentence that reads like a memo, but carries the quiet threat of a worldview shift: Eagleburger is arguing that ignorance is not neutral. If small and medium-sized businesses "do not know what we have to offer", the problem isn’t their incuriosity; it’s institutional neglect. The phrasing turns a market failure into a policy failure, and then into an obligation.

The key word is "react". Diplomats traditionally respond to crises, not to the blind spots of exporters. Eagleburger repurposes the crisis posture for commerce, suggesting that in an era of economic statecraft the absence of deals is itself an emergency. "Just as strenuously" is calibrated envy: it implies that government already bends hard for large firms, and everyone in the room knows it. The line doesn’t romanticize small business; it flatters the bureaucracy into seeing itself as fair, then dares it to prove it.

Context matters. Eagleburger came of age in Cold War Washington, when national power was measured in alliances, access, and leverage. By the late 20th century, the U.S. was increasingly selling its influence through trade missions, export promotion, and the informal muscle of the state on behalf of corporate America. His point lands as a critique of capture without using the vocabulary: the system is tuned to the loudest clients, and SMEs are quieter not because they matter less, but because they have fewer ways to be heard.

The intent is practical, almost managerial: broaden the customer base of American diplomacy. The subtext is moral and strategic: prosperity, legitimacy, and resilience depend on spreading the benefits of globalization beyond the biggest players.