Ban Ki-moon Quotes
Whether addressing immediate crises or building long-term foundations of peace, the United Nations will remain committed to solutions that advance the global good.
Ban, Ki-moon. "Secretary-General's Address to the General Assembly." United Nations, United Nations, 24 Sept. 2013.
When he made this statement, the United States was the only nation that had the atomic bomb, but he and other leading nuclear scientists realized that it would not be long before the Russians would also have nuclear weapons, and other countries would so follow suit. He and some others saw a world government as the best way to cope with the nuclear proliferation problems. However, there was too much diversity of values and political ideology in the world to be accommodated in a single government, and the United Nations was the only thing that was practical and that was far from a government and had virtually no sovereignty. However, during the Cold War, Russia and the United States agreed on a Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and most nations of the world, agreed, so that for the issue of nuclear proliferation, the world had a type or world government—an international treaty. However, India and Pakistan did not adhere to it and developed nuclear weapons and North Korea was never a signatory. Other countries like Iran began to evade the treaty and since there was no real world government it was difficult to enforce the treaty throughout the world.
Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 2007 to December 2016. Before becoming the Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India.
