Harri Holkeri Quotes

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.

The League is dead; long live the United Nations.

The United Nations is a failed institution in its current form.

Without the U. N., world politics is inconceivable.

[Describing the United Nations:] The world cockpit of propaganda.

… unless the United Nations stops becoming simply a debating society for anti-American rhetoric, I'm going to show them the door.

The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council.

There is an ongoing debate about the reform of the U.N. system.

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

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.

It is a commonplace that the League of Nations is not yet-what its most enthusiastic protagonists intended it to be.

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.

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.

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

The United Nations has become a place where many countries seek to achieve a lynching of the United States by resolution.

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

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

The United Nations exists to help countries solve their problems. If it helps the Americans solve theirs by blaming me, I'll be a scapegoat.

When the big powers are in agreement, the U. N. performs. When they aren't, the U. N. is paralyzed.

The UN is ultimately going to be judged on its ability in conflict resolution and conflict prevention.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed institution.

The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

The United Nations is a means. It is not an end for American foreign policy.

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