Kofi Annan Quotes

I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence.

Its not a global village, but we're in a highly interconnected globe.

It is in my heart that I believe most strongly that our future is within a reformed E.U. - not least because we now live in a global marketplace.

If we internationalize everything, we end up with rules that stifle freedom and innovation.

Civilization is the common possession of all who will assimilate and apply its principles …. No race or nation can pre-empt civilization any more than they can monopolize the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, or the waters which hold it in their liquid embrace.

National boundaries are blurred by advanced communications and global commerce, and by the decisions of States to yield some sovereign prerogatives to larger, common political associations.

Creating a structure for mutual prosperity requires lowering regional and transnational barriers to facilitate the flow of goods and promote people-to-people interactions.

I think that the world is going to remain a very interconnected place. I don't think there's any getting away from that. The Internet has brought us closer together. I think cross-border trade is going to continue to grow substantially. I think there may be certain trade agreements that can be renegotiated, one way or another.

Globalization has rendered the world increasingly interdependent, but international politics is still based on the sovereignty of states.

Globalization is blurring the distinction between foreign affairs and domestic politics.

The political boundaries of nation-states are too narrow and constricted to define the scope and activities of modern business.

We cannot turn back the tides of globalization any more than King Knute [995-1035] could turn back the tides.

What, then, unites nations? Interest and sentiment.

Humanity requires that nationalisms be overcome.

The increase of riches and commerce and commerce in any one nation, instead of hurting, commonly promotes the riches and commerce of all its neighbors.

The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.

Globalization is very difficult to understand and almost impossible to regulate.

Railways, multiplied and spanning the continent, are essential domestic institutions -- more powerful and more permanent than law, or popular consent, or political constitutions... They thoroughly complete the grand system... which fraternizes us into one people.

Globalization today is a globalization of markets, not a globalization of democracy.

We recognize the new order in the world, with the closer contacts which progress has wrought.

Each and every civilization in the world is in complete concordance with its people and their condition of living. If a civilization loses this equilibrium it will be lost itself. The inharmonious civilizations die because of their lack of harmony and those who survive are in complete harmony with the changing conditions. The best way of coping with these ever-increasing changes is to come together with the other civilizations.

This age of globalization is marked by the adoption of universal principles governing such matters as democracy, human rights, trade and development.

The development of science has produced an industrial revolution which has brought different peoples in such close contact with one another through colonization and commerce that no matter how some nations may still look down upon others, no country can harbor the illusion that its career is decided wholly within itself.

We’re not at the endpoint of globalization but somewhere near the starting line.

It's hard to envision a future of the United States of America that does not include Mexico.