It’s a deadly world ‘out there’ where world ‘leaders’ tell us to ‘prepare for war’.

The UN Secretary-General speaks of a Multipolar World

‘Conflicts have become more complex, deadly, and harder to resolve. Last year saw the highest number of conflict-related deaths in almost three decades. 

‘Concerns about the possibility of nuclear war have re-emerged.  

‘New potential domains of conflict and weapons of war are creating new ways in which humanity can annihilate itself.  

‘Human rights are under attack across the world, including a pernicious pushback against women’s rights.

‘Distrust in public institutions is mounting, fueled by exclusion and marginalization.

‘The climate emergency is intensifying competition for resources and exacerbating tensions.

‘We need to step up preventive diplomacy at the global level in the face of growing fragmentation, and the potential emergence of geopolitical blocs with different trade rules, supply chains, currencies and interests.

‘[I] call on all countries to prioritize diplomacy – particularly when states disagree; and to make full use of my good offices to bridge divides, so that humanity does not become collateral damage in an all-out geopolitical competition between major powers.

‘The United Nations, as the only truly universal platform, must be at the centre of these efforts.’