The United Nations is terminally paralysed: the democratic world needs a forum of its own

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2016

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In January 2009, a panel of experts came to the Intelligence Squared stage to debate the motion "The United Nations is terminally paralysed: the democratic world needs a forum of its own". Speaking for the motion were Radek Sikorski, Foreign Minister of Poland; Robert Kagan, an expert in US National Security and Foreign policy; Denis Macshane MP, former Minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth office. Speaking against the motion were Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK Ambassador to the United Nations during the Iraq war; Shashi Tharoor, who served 29 years at the UN; and Lord Malloch Brown, former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations. The debate was chaired by BBC World News presenter Zeinab Badawi. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Everything is fuel for your creativity with the Lenovo Yoga laptop series.
0:04.3	From the people you meet to the creators you follow, it all comes together with
0:08.0	Lenovo Yoga.
0:09.0	Plus, you get a 50 pound travel voucher and a shot at winning an awesome trip to New York and a Motorola
0:14.6	razor 40 Ultra. Check out the Lenovo Yoga series with laptops made for creatives at
0:19.7	Lenovo.com slash Yoga. Limited time only terms and conditions apply. Engineered to do it all that's a laptop
0:25.8	evolved with Intel Evo Platform.
0:27.8	Maybe 30 or 20 years ago a Saudi might have said I'm Muslim and I'm Arab and I'm Saudi
0:36.7	Now they might say I'm Saudi and I'm Arab and I'm Muslim
0:40.0	You know they're trying to radically refashion their country and they need help from the best experts in the world
0:45.1	Do you want to have your country's people be disqualified from that because of some essentially antiquated point of view about how countries work together?
0:53.4	In recent months it can feel like Saudi Arabia is intent on buying the world.
0:57.8	It's bought up much of golf, sports teams, many of the globe's best soccer players to its own domestic league and it owns huge chunks of many of the biggest companies on the planet. But Saudi Arabia is not just on a shopping spree. The once insular oil- Rich Kingdom is transforming into a major diplomatic and military
1:16.0	player, a pivotal actor in the energy transition and looks set to host high-end cultural events
1:21.6	like the FIFA World Cup.
1:23.0	You know, they know that buying a football club immediately brings you a
1:27.2	billboard into a global game that allows you to completely reposition yourself
1:32.2	or rebrand yourself.
1:33.4	It feels like we're entering the era of the Saudi project.
1:36.6	But what exactly is the kingdom trying to achieve and will it succeed?
1:40.4	Available now from Intelligence Squared, The Saudi project is a new podcast series seeking to answer some of these questions and more.
1:48.0	Britain does have choices. It's not either or situation. We either indulge Mohammed bin Salman or boycott Mohammed
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -3295 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Intelligence Squared, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Intelligence Squared and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.