UN General Assembly
1984

273. As we approach the halfway mark of the decade of the 1980s, mankind's vision of an international order of greater security and stability, of larger prosperity and justice, appears as distant as ever. 274. Heightened major Power contention has exacerbated the unresolved flashpoints of conflict and violence in many regions of the world. The prolonged world economic crisis with its particularly adverse effects on the developing countries and the growing threat of an ever escalating arms race continue to paralyse the collective capacity of nations to develop the necessary consensus on concepts and policies to meet the exigencies of our present predicament. Yet, when the need for a concerted approach in dealing with our global problems is most urgently felt, we instead witness an astonishing retreat from multilateralism and a wilful weakening of the mechanisms and structures for international dialogue and cooperation. What is more, the United Nations, the universal embodiment of the concept of multilateralism, is increasingly being bypassed or ignored.