Goran Persson Quotes

We have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the United Nations an effective instrument of international cooperation.

The U.N. was created for people.

The U.N. is one of many competitors in a marketplace of global problem solving.

The U.N. can be very frustrating and at times impotent, but it can also be a valuable forum for discussion and resolution of world problems. We should not walk away from it just because it's failed to live up to its promise.

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

The United Nations remains our most important global actor. These days we are continuously reminded of the enormous responsibility of the Security Council to uphold international peace and stability.

The United Nations system is still the best instrument for making the world less fragile.

The League is dead; long live the United Nations.

The future of the U.N. will be determined by its readiness to change and adapt.

I worked at the United Nations.

The U.N. is capable of endless process and mindless psychobabble, but as far as getting the job done on the ground, I just don't see them doing it.

The United Nations will be at the heart of our international activities. France will assume its full responsibilities at the Security Council by putting its status at the service of peace, respect for human rights and development.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.

I have concluded that the U.N. can do a few things well.

The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.

In the euphoria after the Cold War, there was a misplaced notion that the UN could solve every problem anywhere.

The purpose of the United Nations should be to protect the essential sovereignty of nations, large and small.

Of course what is talked about in the U.N. General Assembly is very important. Officials, the leaders of nations, appear there to speak of the most important topics - what they perceive to be the most important topics.

Attempts to settle crises by unilateral sanctions outside the framework of U.N. Security Council decisions threaten international peace and stability. Such attempts are counterproductive and contradict the norms and principles of international law.

There are big issues, like the reform of the Security Council. These kinds of questions are something the President of the General Assembly must keep his eye on.

If the U.N. didn't exist, we'd be inventing it right now.

I very much hope that the United States will finally... realise that they can no longer act as the prosecutor, the judge, and the executioner in every part of the world and that they need to cooperate to resolve issues.

We would have to invent the U.N. if we did not have it, which is not an original thought.

Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority.

I look forward to strengthening the U.S.-U.N. partnership and working closely with Secretary of State Kerry towards our shared goals of peace, development, and human rights.