A Preview of the United Nations General Assembly

Transcript

James B. Steinberg: Well good afternoon, and welcome to Brookings. We're here on the eve of what at least was meant to be an historic U.N. Summit. We'll let you be the judges after we finish talking and answering your questions as to whether it deserves that label.

The 150 heads of state and government coming to gather in New York, months of work leading to this very large gathering, it's been a production that has--was intended at least I think by the Secretary General to really reflect a transformative summit for the U.N., getting it ready for the 21st century, preceded by a very distinguished group, the High Level Panel, which prepared a report for the Secretary General and it became the basis for his own recommendations for the Summit. But now the hard and traditional work of the U.N. has begun to take place, as the member countries grapple with a broad range of issues that have been put on the agenda.

And today, we're going to try to explore a number of the different parameters, not only of the key substantive issues that are facing the members at this Summit meeting, but also some of the internal dynamics and the politics that have led us to get where we've gotten and some assessment of what it might all mean for the future.

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