Madame President of The General Conference, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ambassadors for Peace, Ladies and Gentlemen! It is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to welcome you all here today on behalf of The Universal Peace Federation, a principle host and organiser of this European Leadership Conference being held here at UNESCO's Headquarters in Paris and focussed on this profound and vital theme of a "A New Vision for Peace & Human Development" .
The world is much vaster than our intellect can imagine. In this infinite space, the history of human civilization has its place, even if infinitely small. A world that regenerates itself thanks to the action and reaction of its own contradictions. The greatest epic in this history is the challenge of nature, whose re- sult expresses itself across our knowledge and our concept of the different aspects of existence. It is in this way that they have permitted to distinguish the place of our planet within the solar system, whereas for centuries we considered it the center of the existential world; they have, moreover allowed us, thanks to technology and technique, to bring closer together the different points on the globe, transforming the latter into a village; a village that no longer needs former conquerors, to be conquered.
Le monde est beaucoup plus vaste que ce que peut imaginer notre intellect. Dans cette étendue infi- nie, l’histoire de la civilisation humaine, a sa place, même si elle est infiniment petite. Un monde qui se régénère grâce à l’action et la réaction de ses propres contradictions. La plus grande épopée dans cette histoire est le défi face à la nature, dont le résultat s’exprime à travers nos connaissances et notre concep- tion des différents aspects de l’existence. C’est ainsi qu’elles ont permis de distinguer la place de notre planète à travers notre système solaire, alors que pendant des siècles on l’avait considérée comme le cen- tre du monde existentiel ; elles nous ont par ailleurs permis, grâce à la technologie et aux techniques, de rapprocher les différents points du globe, le transformant en un village ; un village qui n’a plus besoin des conquérants du passé pour être conquis.
Political dynamics in the international arena have changed radically since the end of the cold war. Both developed and developing countries need to establish a new security framework in order to fulfill their roles as leading members of a peaceful world community.
After the cold war, the international landscape has been extensively marked by increasing ethnic and religious conflicts, drugs, terrorism, a proliferation in weapons of mass destruction in certain countries and the prevalence of new disease. In addition to these global issues, newly tangible phenomena such as pirates, oil spills, the financial crash, cyber terrorism and natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, floods, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, typhoon as well as the scramble for natural resources can jeopardize peace and stability at anytime, anywhere on the earth.
