UN General Assembly
1971

60. So long as power politics persist, small nations will, I am afraid, increasingly be made the battlegrounds for resolving big-Power conflicts. A multi-polar world will possibly increase the risk of small wars breaking out. The small nations are more than ever before necessary instruments for big-Power conflicts-the only available instruments for big-Power conflicts. 61. I personally do not believe that small wars or limited wars are all that safe. They may be so in the short run, and in a bipolar world. But in the long run, in a multi-polar world, limited wars must escalate into unlimited wars. Small Powers can acquire a significance and involve considerations of big-Power prestige which may make it impossible for a major Power to accept defeat even in limited wars. But there is little evidence at the present time to show that the big Powers are convinced of that. For the immediate future, small countries would increasingly be made the battlegrounds for big-Power conflicts because great Powers believe small wars to be safe wars.