UN President Speaks at HBS
The keynote speaker for last October’s International Week at HBS, UN General Assembly president Srgjan Kerim, called on the future leaders in his audience to use capital not only to realize profits but also in ways that promote and advance economic growth, social justice, and protection of the environment.
In his presentation “Globalization and the Sovereignty of Nations: Does Globalization Mean That National Sovereignty Is on the Decline?” Kerim, from Macedonia, cited the fight against climate change as an example of “the changing nature of sovereignty in the context of multilateralism.” Climate change and other major problems, he argued, can only be resolved through international cooperation, with the UN the appropriate body for global collective action.
Kerim concluded by saying that rather than eroding national sovereignty, globalization has empowered individuals and their sovereign free will. “The debate about national sovereignty should not focus on decline but on evolution,” he said. “Globalization makes this inevitable.”
