“In our modern world, mass hunger, economic stagnation, environmental catastrophe, political instability, and terrorism cannot be quarantined within national borders.”

—  Willy Brandt

Attributed in "World Government—What Are the Obstacles?", Awake! magazine article, 1984, 12/22.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In our modern world, mass hunger, economic stagnation, environmental catastrophe, political instability, and terrorism …" by Willy Brandt?
Willy Brandt photo
Willy Brandt 8
German social-democratic politician; Chancellor of the Fede… 1913–1992

Related quotes

Harald V of Norway photo

“Home is where our heart is – and that cannot always be confined within national borders.”

Harald V of Norway (1937) King of Norway

"Home is where our heart is" is an ancient saying, reported at least as early as 1847, in Joseph C. Neal, "Singleton Snippe. Who Married for a Living", Graham's Magazine (1847), p. 166: "Home is where the heart is; and Snippe's heart was a traveler—a locomotive heart, perambulating; and it had no tendencies toward circumscription and confine".
Garden party in the Palace Park: welcoming speech (September 1, 2016)
Context: It is not always easy to say where we are from, what nationality we are. Home is where our heart is – and that cannot always be confined within national borders.

Jared Diamond photo

“Thus, because we are rapidly advancing along this non-sustainable course, the world's environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another, within the lifetimes of the children and young adults alive today The only question is whether they will become resolved in pleasant ways of our own choice, or in unpleasant ways not of our choice, such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease epidemics, and collapses of societies. While all of those grim phenomena have been endemic to humanity throughout our history, their frequency increases with environmental degradation, population pressure, and the resulting poverty and political instability.”

Jared Diamond book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Source: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "If we don't solve them..." (Penguin Books, 2011, page 498, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

Ronald Reagan photo

“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Susan Sontag photo

“The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. Can we really say there is no response to this?”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

"Why Are We in Kosovo?", The New York Times (2 May 1999)
Context: Not surprisingly, the Serbs are presenting themselves as the victims. (Clinton equals Hitler, etc.) But it is grotesque to equate the casualties inflicted by the NATO bombing with the mayhem inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people in the last eight years by the Serb programs of ethnic cleansing.
Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust.
No forceful response to the violence of a state against peoples who are nominally its own citizens? (Which is what most "wars" are today. Not wars between states.) The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. Can we really say there is no response to this?

Michael Collins (Irish leader) photo

“We are a small nation. Our military strength in proportion to the mighty armaments of modern nations can never be considerable. Our strength as a nation will depend upon our economic freedom, and upon our moral and intellectual force. In these we can become a shining light in the world.”

Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922) Irish revolutionary leader

A Path to Freedom (2010), p. 64

Mohamed Nasheed photo

“In short, I believe the future is ours to shape. Our economies are booming. Our political influence is growing. And our ability has never been stronger. Our populations are youthful and energetic. Our thinkers, researchers and scientists are globally renowned. Our culture is internationally acclaimed. Our private sector companies are some of the world’s largest and most profitable. We can only achieve [these] goals, if we work together… because our success, is dependent on our neighbour's success; economic stagnation in one part of our region, dampens prosperity in another; instability in one member state, causes insecurity for us all.”

Mohamed Nasheed (1967) Maldivian politician, 4th president of the Maldives

President Nasheed stressed that the time has come for South Asia, which he said was earlier considered a sideshow in the theatre of global politics, to shine as it currently occupies the centre stage in global politics, quoted on HaveeruOnline, 'Time has come to shine', President Nasheed tells SAARC leaders http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/38638, November 11, 2011.

Allan Boesak photo

“There are wars in this world, not because wars are the will of God but because of greed and arrogance, the lust for power and domination. There is hunger not merely because there is lack of food, but because of political and economic policies that foster inequality of the distribution of resources, because of one-sided control of world markets by powerful nations who refuse to enter seriously in the search for a more just, equitable, and sustainable economic order.”

Allan Boesak (1946) South African anti-apartheid activist

Source: Comfort and Protest (1987), p. 67

Ilana Mercer photo

“Programmed from on high, Europeans, like Americans, are bound by the suicide pact of political correctness to open their borders to the huddled mass of Third World people, no matter the consequences to their societies.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

“The curse of Colonel Gadhafi,” http://praag.org/?p=18615 Praag.org, April 24, 2015.
2010s, 2015

Mikhail Gorbachev photo

“Being resolute today means to act within the framework of political and social pluralism and the rule of law to provide conditions for continued reform and prevent a breakdown of the state and economic collapse, prevent the elements of chaos from becoming catastrophic.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Nobel Address (1991)
Context: Being resolute today means to act within the framework of political and social pluralism and the rule of law to provide conditions for continued reform and prevent a breakdown of the state and economic collapse, prevent the elements of chaos from becoming catastrophic.
All this requires taking certain tactical steps, to search for various ways of addressing both short- and long-term tasks. Such efforts and political and economic steps, agreements based on reasonable compromise, are there for everyone to see.

Reza Pahlavi photo

“The current regime is trumping the Shiite-Sunni card, pitting national minorities at each other’s throat. However Iran is a country which for centuries accorded welcome to people of different nationalities and faiths. So when we come to power, national minorities will have their rights guaranteed. The present regime creates too many complexities like terrorism, economic instability, nuclear menace, extremism. When it clears the stage, 90 percent of world problems will be resolved.”

Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran

As quoted by Nadezhda Popova, Reza Pahalavi, Son Of The Last Shah Of Iran: “No War Is Needed – We Will Topple This Regime Ourselves” http://www.rezapahlavi.org/details_article.php?article=22&page=6, Izvetsiya, May 29, 2006.
Interviews, 2006

Related topics