UN General Assembly
1996

absorb the intense impact of the major transformations of the present decade, which have relied heavily on the foundations and parameters of the current system of international relations. This means that the international community still needs some time — not necessarily a little — in which to fathom the similarities and diversities of national interests that influence the contemporary international political system. In order to be able to understand these political ramifications in their historical context, we must consider this phenomenon in the context of the flexibility and inflexibility that characterize the structure of the contemporary system of international relations. That is because the crisis afflicting current international political relations has been caused largely by the persistence of complex political and historical dilemmas that have continued to interact within a system of international relations based on visions formulated by the allies before the end of the Second World War. The Powers that are influential in the international arena presently appear to be reviewing the basis on which the present international system was founded, with a view