and well aware that all of them are loaded with controversy but we cannot escape the fact that they are all part of the  us in europe in asia in africa around the world these that you feel that one must deal with if one wants to understand what's happening right now america  united states is one party as one unit but america is as connected as it is to europe and is connected to other parts of the world so we have to understand the the react the the thinking  the resistance to some of the terms that are included in this presentation of mine and i want to make it clear when i talk about the  humility is still a word in our dictionary because when we know when we hear that we you and we in europe and the canadians all together the w we are twelve percent of the global population that's all twelve percent so we should try and step back and understand what that implies we are a very small minority of seven point four billion people that inhabit the globe at this at this point so i can't escape because i am a strong believer in humor if you can't laugh a poor person you one has to be humorous and you are you as a nation i always felt as a young man when i came here as a student you have a sense of humor you can start something thing something humorous speech usually starts with with some kind of a joke well i don't have a joke but i have something i could talk and bore you or maybe i don't know or long time with law if about the u s and about the west importance and the rest didn't really count and he for example would say more than once the united nations nations the one hundred ninety three member countries that make up the un the united states is the sun the rest of the asteroids the little stuff and this of course is a very natural element a very natural part of globalization globalization has to mean by definition the westernizing more global less west one can i get one can i one can debate this maybe you want to challenge me on that this a little bit but it is part of a process at the political and economic at the cultural at the social level at all levels west have followed for a long long time this one fits all kind of approach is no longer really realistic one fits all at one point when we were as a western group of nations so powerful well the others had to accept it but that has gone this is no longer like that so that's level one level two apart from the fact that it's happened anyway it also happens consciously this being promoted and the other level it's consciously promoted by the eighty eight percent who say look  receive what you have achieved in the west but we're not against that but we would like to share we would like to participate we would like and of course in many ways this is totally if you look at it not from our narrow point of view but from a wider perspective how would you feel if we as central european countries and the u s and canada and turned into trade negotiations in the so called dog round of trade of the world trade organization the w argue for free trade what the at the same time we continue with agricultural subsidies we in korea we continue was with carrying out all kinds of i've no time to go into details with so called which means you still block the imports of countries in the south whether it is showgirl cotton or whatever a very concrete example such role we preach free trade but we want to have free trade for us not for the of us so naturally the eighty eight percent increasingly argue against that and as a result of this consciously brics brazil russia india china and south africa for non western countries that are saying look we will now be a pillar that is trying to resist this  idea that the west is the only thing that counts on the block we want to have our own approaches and they move ahead and they have become a force one example the other but it's a western institute in many respects and today we have two two chinese banks that have a larger investment and lending portfolio than the world bank that is an investment bank that has become much more powerful than the world bank one should notice independent that was moving away the umbilical cord to us and europe was caught so this started maybe once the beginning of very conscious about our world our world as a western world it was still a western very much a western world and if you look at who signed this document in san francisco nine hundred forty five the composition of the u n at that time apart from the general assembly where you had a predominance of western countries present you had the security council and the security council consiste of five permanent members three of which were western countries two of them russia and china were not western countries are so even there in this policymaking decision making political decision making circumstance it was the western countries and the wise people among them eleanor roosevelt who were so active in creating the united nations where those who said look this looks too strongly western we have to balance this implant and out of that came a real anomaly which is often forgotten and that is in the general assembly you had the soviet union not with one seat but with three seats the ukraine rules and russia had a seat in the general assembly in order to make it a little bit more balanced very little in the security council on the other hand there was only  one permanent member from that part of the world and that was the u s s r that was the the soviet union but russia ukraine and belarus had their own independent status in the assembly how does it look today i said a moment ago you have now one hundred and ninety three un member countries where all the composition is very different today one cannot even remotely argue that this is the west and majority it's not the west is today in the united nations general assembly a minority the majority are non western countries to south africa or canada or whatever that has to be accepted it can't argue about the same and sovereignty sovereignty of nations the words became vitally important in the we had to look at our own arguments so things have changed a lot in these seventy one years from the time when it was no question the west follow and a lot has happened during this time and we have to one can criticize one can criticize endlessly but and the u n is at the moment have been criticized and not for the wrong reasons but please when you look at the united nations the united nations has many faces and the united nations has two legs and one leg is the one that is being right criticized and that is the political united nations the security council the general assembly one can criticize the other united nations is the operation the united nations the fifty five thousand men and women that work in that body globally in all hundred ninety three countries when there's an earthquake when the ref your genes when there is  climate change tragedy like there is in the central african belt today and with drought when you need to introduce new  technology when you need to have stablished telecommunications when you must help countries to establish their postal system the u n is there the operation un is there with miserably i think it's not the time now to go into details with miserably little money it's shameful how little the united nations has the budget please accept this is reliable figure the budget of the secretary general's office in new york is one third of the budget of columbia university in new york the police department the fire brigade prior service in new york has a bigger budget than the united nations secretary general now i have to qualify that a bit because the second general isn't the only one who has a un budget unicef unesco united nations development program all these they have their own resources but i'm just telling you the upshot that in two thousand and sixteen it's also fair to say that the eighty one eighty eight percent simply argue can you object can you be surprised we want to participate we want to participate in all aspects of global life that affects us at the national level or affects us in the entire country level and we also we want to have all voice in the in the global order needs to be done imposing our models on of us and i really mean i don't this is not a criticism of the us it's a criticism of us in the west so there is an incredible a little bit what i what people don't normally know all the only institution in the united nations that isn't on the one country one vote is the world bank group the international monetary fund these so called  institution the financial sector un body is based on how much capital you pay in is how many votes you'll get but doesn't stop there the s plus the western european countries have fifty one percent of the vote and suddenly there comes saudi arabia and even japan and they say look we have the money we'd like to buy a few more boards th 're told no sorry you can't do that we want to maintain our western superiority that's something which is bound to change that's going to last an anger in the finance world this continues to be the way politics very good example you all know about the g seven the seven most industrialized countries which are either western or western oriented like korea and japan today they're not important important is the g twenty where turkey sits where saudi arabia sits where presume is west south africa so it's a totally different ball game today it's a big deal westernized reality well my wife likes more than i do to watch  movies and increasingly she has showed me told me tonight is another not hollywood movie but the bollywood movie and you all have seen bollywood movies and we as westerners we laugh smart go incredible so that's seen has changed also very much as the trade flows to which i unloaded to already and then something which i think we all have to take quite seriously and that the social media social media started as a western phenomenon it was invented here this business the technology that came from here well today it's used by everybody and to lesser degree but it is the engine for global integration absolutely i live in  this international life that we are glad we are so integrated my one one son and his wife he german american she danish live in myanmar another son of mine american german lives in london with his french wife i am sure that my daughter who is not married yet will not end up with a german she will marry someone else so it is a social media make all these things much publishes a report once a year just came out by the way the two thousand and sixteen report the un human development report atros for every country unbelievable detail of statistics among them internet use rs for norway can you believe for norway this statistic is ninety six point five percent of the norwegian people use internet ninety six percent ninety six point five percent extreme the other extreme is this country that few people know about it exists as a member of the united nations is also a generous and cold supply of asylum seekers in europe right now every one percent one percent in eritrea use internet ninety six point five percent in norway use internet so that's there but the fact still is the world uses the internet one can say  t i want to bring this down to another level which is maybe sometimes ignored and that is one can argue i would argue that the twentieth century was the century of political political independence i think that's not a big statement to make but the twenty first century is maybe becoming very quickly the sentry for many people independence mental independence political independence one thing it's nation nations become sovereign mental independence comes through what if it comes through education and more and more people today he are getting an education this year i looked up a statistic that intrigued me the way the world has language barrier but in the u k in the scandinavian countries in the netherlands germany beginning because we are switching i'm teaching at the university and i'm teaching in english so that's a shift that's a change so  and that's one thing the other thing which is more relevant to our debate here is that more and more centers of excellence develop outside of europe outside of america outside of the  and if we don't watch are coming now to the next point that i want to make if we don't watch it we we and i think we have to watch them very much leave it at that you would say opinion you want to make a statement like that give us examples where all the examples i would give you is first i've noted here oh i switch it now so it doesn't look to us focused i will now see that first the first flashpoint is the nato expansion into eastern europe that is very clearly  major a new crisis flashpoint and we are horribly disappointed this honest here we are we are fearful there again the fear factor well known in america fear factor the  baltic countries afraid of russia and we cash in on that we now have a presence the germans have a battalion in one of these countries now station you have other terms of international security the other one that i had missed it first that i now live is sorry i think it is a grave mistake for the us government to start fiddling around in the pacific this pit in the pacific this battle where the philippine authorities before this crazy man was elected in the philippines made the point please you outside us let us negotiate what the future of these islands is among ourselves no u s navy wants to be there or the u s government wants to be there and countries like the philippines and vietnam and skillfully exploit that by aligning themselves with that because they know they get something out of it they get military equipment they get other concessions trade concessions whatever and it is very dangerous development that isn't necessary your challenging the sleeping the sleeping tiger there the chinese you would say what i can talk more maybe you have questions but one that you don't know don't read much about you may know doesn't read much about it is what is brewing here in the arctic you have the arctic i can tell you there is a real crisis is evolving with people trying to argue that this is our territory the russians planting a flag on the bottom of the arctic ocean and whatever the ten is interesting is the composition four out of the five central asian republics are members but one that is in this turkmenistan plus of course the two key members are russia and china and then out comes iran and pakistan india india and pakistan are constantly early age other throat but they are they are together and the  most the most recent addition is afghanistan afghanistan ok so you have alliances that were not created because of the against the west but they have become the  to fight stubbornly west of what i would call western stubbornness so we have a clash here and the clash involved there is in the broader rumsfeld who when i was in baghdad it's more than once made life difficult for us he once said international law we don't need international law we are international  you know this is that mentality then came a man who is a tie in between i should say that i'm not an american but i would say i'm glad he's retired is jesse h if you do what we want you to do we will strengthen you but if you do something that we don't want you to do we will marginalize you well that is not that is exceptionalism that is something which i think has to find us international relations quite negatively over a long period of a long period of time and it also has defined the relationship the u s with the we all memory is not so bad we know that this document is a product of u s efforts we know that many institutions where created with the help of the united and why is that's why is that sole i think there is something that if you feel i'm cutting down because i'm talking too much and i still things to say about there is a fear about this foreignness and somewhere in my notes i have written down something which historically shows that the u s i come to it may be a little bit later that this goes back to even the days of george washington when there was a fear to deal with something foreign and this is much to the detriment intellectual leadership we have had good intellectual leadership from the us but the political leadership was i would say do on the positive side one shouldn't just criticize i would say good examples of leadership u s leadership is the other five plus one talks with iran the u s was very instrumental in making that possible that is the u s government because the u s congress acted as you know quite differently and the other example not a very glorious example but is a glow an example of cooperation that is why things have happened that's why the geneva talks started again so that's positive and however however on the one has to realize visible the world sees it so there is more willingness to cooperate to compromise to participate and i think that is very very good development i hope it stays that way try and cut down a little bit and yeah let me let me leave out a few things and and make the point what is in my view extremely important is that we realize that we have whether we like it or not we have some things in common whether we are everyone is involved here everyone from the north to the south from the east to the west terrorism we all in the us the people in mali and central africa as much as the people in boston  poverty we have poverty everyone there's poverty and if we don't develop our programs our strategies around these kind of threats i think the world i hope you will agree with me on and that is use this illusion and youth unemployment you have a lot of youth unemployment so do we and that that is the seed for tomorrow's crisis put to more austerity for tomorrow's conflict war whatever if we don't don't understand it and if we do understand maybe we will manage the interim intergenerational dialogue that is largely breaking down in europe also people the youth looked at him and said don't talk to me you're turning on me you don't know what i feel you don't know what i think so there is no communication between well that's what has to be bridged i think and if you're laughing then you're still on my side but i will try my first point is we have to accept the rest myself whether we like it or whether we not like it ok will i will not go into any detail but come right to the second point which is we have to understand that this unilateralism this political will the un has stacks of reports my students have a list of nineteen important documents that have been created in the last fifteen year ninety nine since ninety ninety seven on you and reforms on making this international system better it's slumbers in the libraries of the united nations that's cannot continue we must either made a small reference to the door round of trade talks we must concede we must concede that this open ended free market model has failed us has failed us deeply just as the communist model has failed but this open market that is being proposed by powerful well and dolled individuals here too in this country that that that cannot cannot continue if we want to have something which one can maybe be more respect for the describe as trade with a human face trade with a human face social marketing that's better than what we see right now then the fourth point i'm making progress in my seven points is the fourth point is we do we have a choice we must break these alliances that have evolve well established very powerful what am i talking about the alliances between partisan think tanks think tanks that give the impression of objectivity but do the opposite they ideologically tainted between them and private wealth you read that book are shouldered into to bird today jane my arse dark money book if you look at that book you  must be very tired if you fall asleep after that it's very moving very very dramatically showing the link between the think tanks private wealth politics media lobby groups  intelligence even intelligence in praful you probably don't believe that statistic in prices i read that eighteen thousand lobbyists eighteen thousand lobbyists in brussels to influence the european union power of this information misinformation is one thing misinformation can be sloppy journalism can be a careless research or whatever but this information when you purposefully plan mislead and then get away with it while we will we will have we will have very serious serious problems and we know how much this this information has influenced finance security military collaboration between nations dealing with  i had a great number of examples where there was such a purpose for deliberate attempt to mislead the state department the u s state department saw this pamphlet imbarked out we first started laughing because it was page after page inventive stuff and then we got angry you know we cannot we cannot accept well what can we not accept when we are a small fish in this tank of international conflict involving iraq but they were completely misleading statements that is what i am i'm talking about and  the six point will you will i will read as a public will we believe again in the in the credible intentions of politics restoration of public trust is a precondition to me for reducing conflict we must restore public trust and in that context i and then i  this business because this information and lack of trust of course have something to do but i just out of curiosity i googled before i came to the us i cood what this company that was on record to have argued that iraqi military nineteen in two thousand and two thousand was murdering babies because of the incubator just disconnected comp elite li false story involving the daughter of the kuwait ambassador never being in kuwait because she was in washington tears in their eyes making best point and this was all put together by a public relations firm called hill and knowlton so out of curiosity i said i wonder whether they still exist so i looked at the website you can do the same hill and knowlton and you will laugh because you will see  i'm not just mentioning to you but they advertise themselves in two thousand and sixteen other things with we offer we offer insightful research and strategy communication throughout the world find a while and then as we are master it says that i'm quoting we are masters in storytelling and content creation can you believe that you check it out i'm not saying anything or that's it last point ripley yeah the last point maybe is the most important and that may be the toughest nut to crack we how do we replace impunity with accountability how do we replace impunity with accountability if we if we let people march into the security council into our parliaments and make big decisions and walk out and maybe five years later collect their pension but no accountability if we continue like that are we then surprised if things stretches but i don't think i'm so naive in saying this as a utopian idea that this is not all doable it's all doable what i what we have talked about here today is because i saw it was a glimpse into grassroots democracy in action it impressed me a lot it impressed me a lot because i saw the citizens that were sitting there maybe fifty sixty people they were struggling in dealing with issues of peace with issues of the welfare for people with issues of security human security not just security from fear but also security from want from being simply from being poor and i and seeing this is a great example where one could see of the strengths the resilience the conviction the optimism with which grassroots level one grassroots level community is dealing with these and almost fully dark forces that are around the corner i'm a little bit annoyed saying that influenced by the fact that i just finished reading this book dark money because it strolls in five hundred page four hundred fifty pages of how powerful th