Ambassador
Ambassador's Speech
REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR WAYNE AT MODEL UN PROGRAM
Lincoln International School
November 19, 2008
Thank you very much for that kind introduction, Corey. I want to express my gratitude to your teachers Nan Shorey and Jason Bailey and to Lucas Rael and Jessica Hays, Model UN student coordinators, for putting together this impressive and important program this evening, and for asking me to come and speak to you all.
I am very pleased to be here with you today because I'm a strong believer in the value of the Model UN program. I applaud your interest in learning more about global politics and issues and the important role the UN plays in international multilateral diplomacy. The issues you are focusing on today, Iranian nuclear proliferation, the conflict between Russia and Georgia, and reforming the UN Security Council membership are important global issues, and I am sure you will learn a lot about them over the next two days.
At no time in our history has the need for effective multilateral diplomacy been more important. We have never been more interdependent, more globalized, than we are today. Many of us who have the privilege to live in developed countries feel secure, and frankly many of our citizens are not overly concerned about global issues, even though they should be. Yet just outside our doors is a world full of starvation, disease, and war. Preventable wars take the lives of thousands, many of them child soldiers; 40,000 people die daily from treatable diseases; and 650 million children live in the most abject poverty. The destruction of part of our fragile ecology is felt throughout the world. A worldwide recession, such as we may be on the verge of today, affects the livelihood of many people in the world. AIDS spreads across borders. Events in faraway places we may have only read about in National Geographic now affect us directly.
Our world is already interconnected, and it will only become more so in the future. Globalization brought a beefless McBurger to India and American movies to African villages. As economist Larry Summers recently pointed out in a Buenos Aires speech, globalization has eliminated more poverty in the last 20 years than was eliminated in the previous two hundred. Dangerous things can also spread more widely with globalization, and we need to build protections against that. But, globalization isn't going away. We are becoming more involved, not less, in the wider world through business, communications, travel, immigration, and the environment.
Although national sovereignty is important, as a member of an interdependent world, we need to bring our shared problems to organizations whose purpose is to ensure a stable, secure, and healthy world for all. The United Nations can be that organization.
As a founding member and host of the United Nations, the United States is committed to supporting the UN as the main multilateral body in today’s world for promoting peace, security, freedom, and human rights. Since its founding, the UN has served the needs of all our nations around the world. In recent years, for example, the Security Council acted to stem the violence in Sudan, sanction North Korea for its nuclear test, end the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and bring peace to war-torn Haiti. Other UN agencies deal with urgent transnational needs such as HIV/AIDS and other diseases that threaten countless millions, assist with refugees, provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and care for the world’s most vulnerable children.
The United States works closely with the UN to fight against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction; bring war criminals who have committed genocide to justice; promote democracy and human rights; and keep and restore peace. In just the past few months, UN programs have aided 800,000 people from Myanmar left homeless by a deadly cyclone, helped 270,000 Hondurans affected by the severe floods in their country, provided food for 200,000 displaced people in war-torn Congo, and helped protect thousands of children and adolescents from sexual exploitation, child trafficking, and child labor. We recognize the value of a strong UN that can take on tough challenges that no one nation can handle by itself.
But even the UN’s strongest supporters understand that it can’t solve every problem. All of us have a role to play in making our world a better place. And when I say “all of us,” I don’t just mean nations. I mean average citizens who, through active participation in the political and social life of their communities, can bring positive change and reshape the world. Never forget that your vote counts, and never forget that a few concerned people can become a group, a group can become a political party, and a political party can run a country. It all starts with you, the individual.
That is why when I began my talk I called tonight’s event “important.” Through active participation in this Model UN program, you will learn about other countries, see issues from other people’s perspective, and get a better sense of how hard it is to reconcile everyone’s interests and achieve consensus. You must be able to listen to others, understand their needs, and make compromises. These are critically important things to learn in order to function in today’s globalized world. No country can stand alone, and we must learn how to live together in a peaceful world for the good of all our children.
With that, I will close. I want to congratulate you for participating in this Model UN program and encourage you to stay engaged in learning about our world after the program ends. Remember, anyone can be a leader. A leader is someone who helps a group find solutions to the problems it faces. We need all the leaders we can get to make a difference, to make our global community a better place.
Thank you again for inviting me to be here with you this evening, and I wish you an exciting and productive program. I’d be happy to take any questions that you might have.