At every fork in the road, there is a road not taken. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was one of those defining moments when the world had a choice of paths to pursue. The Earth Summit marked a milestone with agreement by more than 178...

March 8 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, an occasion for looking back on the past struggles and accomplishments of women, and for looking ahead to opportunities that await future generations. One hundred years after one million people attended rallies on that first commemoration, business leaders from all...

Holocaust Remembrance Day has been observed at the United Nations on January 27th since 2006. This year, while snow blanketed New York City, closing schools as well as UN Headquarters, educational events about the Holocaust that had been arranged by my Department for that day sadly had to be postponed.

My father was the principal of a high school in Osaka in western Japan. That might not sound like the hippest job for a parent. But in Japan, as in many other countries, professors and teachers get a lot of respect and even reverence. I learned early on that teachers...

2010 was supposed to be the year that the world reversed the loss of biodiversity. Countries have failed to reach this target, however, and species are becoming extinct at far more than 100 times the natural rate. Worse, it has seemed like the political will to change course simply was...

If a major company were to set itself a number of lofty goals to be reached, let's say, within 15 years, wouldn't it make sense for it to bring its top leadership together way ahead of the target date to gauge progress?

That kind of stock-taking and forward planning...

Today's headlines were sprinkled with words that seldom go with breaking developments in the Middle East: "cooperate," "agree," "assist." The news told the story of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon setting up a panel of inquiry on the Gaza flotilla incident -- a decision that had been made after last-minute consultations...

"What? Another UN organization?" That might have been the reaction by some to the recent action by the General Assembly. And yet the unanimous adoption of a resolution that established "UN Women," a new composite entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, was greeted with a loud chorus of...

Amid news reports headlining the summit of a group of 20 of "the world's most powerful economies" in Toronto, Canada, some are wondering: What about the weaker ones? Others are asking if the G20's agenda, with its focus on financial systems and mechanisms, may not reflect the concerns of other...

If an extraterrestrial polling organization were to get interested in a planet called Earth and then try to identify one common topic of conversation of its denizens circa mid-June 2010, it might have been puzzled by a curious phenomenon. In practically every corner of the planet, millions of its inhabitants...

When we talk about global problems, it sometimes seems very hard to see how a simple action by one person -- the proverbial man or woman in the street -- can make a difference. Like if you turn off a computer or a light when they are no longer needed,...

When an author I met today during an overseas visit gave me a copy of his recently published book, he said writing it was very special since it recounted his involvement in a project that he could be truly proud of. His sentiment was echoed by others in the room,...

You can't escape it. It's right there when you open a newspaper or turn on your TV, when you walk down the street or fly across the ocean. To paraphrase the famous slogan, you can't leave home without it. And it stays with you at home, too.

I'm referring,...

The expression "fraught with symbolism" probably belongs to that class of overused phrases that dictionaries tend to dismiss as clichés. To me, however, those words seem to be a very fitting way to describe what was happening last week at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The

Walking to my office at UN Headquarters in New York this morning I passed by an intersection that bore a prominent street sign saying: "Mandela Corner." This is New York City's way of recognizing a fearless fighter for liberty in Africa and many other noble causes.

It reminded me that...