Much that has happened in the last three years confirms my view that more than the calendar is changing. The Asian financial crisis showed that the effects of economic change anywhere in the world are now felt everywhere, but not in an even or equitable way. The protests at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle last November showed that many people are unhappy about globalisation, or at least about the way it is being handled. They feel too much attention is paid to commercial interests, not enough to social, cultural or environmental ones. All this convinces me that we are indeed living in a new era.
Globalisation is real.
It is highly beneficial to some. It is potentially beneficial to all - but only if states work together to put its benefits within reach of all their people. Without that common effort, billions will be left in poverty and squalor, and even those who have begun to better themselves will be at the mercy of sudden economic change. We face global challenges which oblige us to work together. If that is true in the economic and social sphere, it applies even more to the challenge of massacre and war.