UN General Assembly
1984

164. In this context, the statistics on military expenditure are depressing in the extreme. It is particularly heart-breaking to see small developing nations devoting vast sums to military budgets while poverty, hunger and unemployment run rampant in their countries. This phenomenon serves to underscore my earlier remarks concerning the need for effective international machinery to shore up the security of small States. For where there are real or perceived threats to their national security, nations cannot concentrate fully on their economic development and social progress. 165. I need hardly point out that if a fraction of the resources devoted to the expenditure on arms were channelled instead to social and economic development a better life might at last be within reach of the wretched majority on this planet. Moreover, until the world as a whole, and the superpowers in particular, are prepared to show tangible proof of their commitment to disarmament and to putting an end to the arms race, the threat of a sudden conflagration will continue to hang over us like the sword of Damocles.