Boutros Boutros-Ghali (November 14, 1922 – February 16, 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1992 to December 1996. An academic and former Vice Foreign Minister of Egypt, Boutros-Ghali oversaw the UN at a time when it dealt with several world crises, including the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan Genocide. He was then the first Secretary-General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie from November 1997 to December 2002. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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Power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy. The Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States.
Only stupid people don't change their minds.
Disneyland is not an independent state.
It has long been recognized that an essential element in protecting human rights was a widespread knowledge among the population of what their rights are and how they can be defended.
Democracy is an objective. Democratization is a process. Democratization serves the cause of peace because it offers the possibility of justice and of progressive change without force.
Water will be more important than oil this century.
The only way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence.
The problem is when you are writing something in retrospective, it needs a lot of courage not to change, or you will forget a certain reality, and you will just take in consideration your view today.
The concept of peace is easy to grasp; that of international security is more complex, for a pattern of contradictions has arisen here as well.
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(February 16 is also the birthday of Henry Adams and G.M. Trevelyan.)
Categories: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Quotes of the day
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