UN General Assembly
1998

of that truth. Ten years ago a dissident, I could barely even dream that I would be at the helm of my free nation?s foreign affairs, and in that role preside over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an organization which spans three continents in its attempt to promote security and cooperation in a conflict-torn world. And yet those 10 years ago, had I imagined that such a future were possible I would probably have believed that a man in my position could indeed help change the world, make it a better, safer place. Like so many of us present here in this Hall, I had to learn the bitter lessons of the limitations of power. These lessons should indeed teach us humility, but not serve as an alibi for not assuming our obligations. The world today is a better and safer place than it was 10 years ago, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. For all the needless suffering, the agony of hunger, the scourge of ethnic hatred and war, the shame of