UN General Assembly
2011

follow the commitments made in our first General Assembly debate. Nevertheless, we increasingly recognize that those commitments were made over a quarter of a century ago. Twenty-five years is a common definition of a generation in human terms, which means that a new generation is now moving into positions of authority. Behind it, a further generation is now coming of age. It has no personal memory of the global situation that shaped international policy in the Cold War era. Although both generations are naturally still influenced by those times and the leaders who brought them to this point, they are also new generations, for whom the new century shapes world affairs. In our statement to the General Assembly three years ago (see A/63/PV.10), we outlined our approach to this by broadly setting out what are now regarded as the challenges of this new century. Some involve security in all of its forms — political, physical and economic. Others address the natural environment and the effects of climate change. Still others raise questions about sustainable development and many