UN General Assembly
1948

There was no nation, however great, which, in a world such as that of to-day, could defend its freedom solely with its own resources. All nations were, therefore, interested in security. Where existing machinery for the prevention or settlement of international disputes had proved or was proving inadequate to effect security, I additional means had to be sought. Security for individual nations, under such circumstances, could be assured only by the effective co-operation and the united power of those nations whose determination to maintain their freedom constituted a strong bond of community between them. It was not surprising, therefore, that certain nations, which knew that their security depended on collective action in some form and which were not yet able to achieve that security on the universal basis which the United Nations contemplated should, pending this large accomplishment, seek to achieve their security on a less than universal basis.