UN General Assembly
2018

Dark clouds of trade wars are looming large on the horizon. The challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, pandemics, transnational organized crime and sustainable development are becoming ever more complex. The post-World War idealism is giving way, slowly but surely, to a hardened, militaristic approach. That trend is not only regressive, it is downright dangerous. We note with concern seismic shifts in the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. As existing conflicts are exacerbated, new threats have emerged. Competing interests of regional and extraregional Powers are deepening long-standing fissures and widening the fault lines, even as the tragedy of Palestine continues to fester. In these uncertain times, the global community appears to be on a desperate quest for leadership, a vision and an order.