UN General Assembly
1951

46. What we see around us is, in the broadly historic sense of the term, a revolutionary phase, the root cause of which lies in the obsolescence of time-honoured relationships of dependence and sway. These no longer fit the new realities of national and international life; they call either for a gradual adjustment or for a swift change. Over vast areas, great and ancient peoples have emerged to sovereign statehood after centuries of subjection. Their own struggle for liberation, coupled in some cases with a far-sighted statesmanship of renunciation on the part of the dominant Power, have achieved the transformation. Yet the process is still far from completion, either in area or in extent. From formal to real independence there is a road to travel. Even old-established States seek to liquidate the heritage of inferiority in which they have long acquiesced. All these weaker nations claim an effective status of full equality. The Powers of the Occident, on the other hand, seek to safeguard positions on which depends not only their own strength but a great deal of the prosperity and security of the areas concerned. The historic query is whether these interests are necessarily incompatible or whether they can be reconciled.