United States Ambassador’s Speech to the United Nations Essay Example for Free

United States Ambassador’s Speech to the United Nations Essay Ladies and gentlemen and citizens of the world, my name is Susan Rice and I am honored to speak to you today. Our countries, which all embrace the United Nations’ quest for worldwide peace and stability, face many challenges that we can and must solve together. My nation, the United States of America, is prepared and determined to act constructively, responsibly and morally to contribute toward the realization of our shared goals. The United States of America has recently chosen a new and hopeful president who has bold, optimistic, and pragmatic ideas for his country and for our world. I am fortunate and privileged to have known and worked closely with Mr. Obama for the last several years, and I am honored that he nominated me for this post within this eminent organization. Working closely with all of you, I will strive to reflect and embody our country’s renewed principles of fairness, justice, respect for human rights, and love of freedom. Our individual homelands and our world as a whole face daunting challenges as we gather here today. Economic turmoil, security threats, political instability and human rights violations weigh on all our minds and on the minds of our respective countrymen. Let me assure each of you, and the people of your country by extension, that we are intent on charting a hopeful new path that will benefit us all. The United States is proud of our history of doing what’s right for our country and for the world of peace-loving nations as a whole. We believe that the vast majority of our actions over our more than 200 years have been just and beneficial for the free world. However, we know that our record is not perfect. Our new administration is committed to righting recent wrongs and working with our United Nations counterparts to face and conquer the issues and challenges that confront us today. I want to lay out some broad concerns and objectives that we believe must be addressed and confronted for the benefit of all our nations. Let me quote our United Nations charter. It â€Å"gives the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security† (United Nations, 2009). As we all know, that objective is never easy to attain. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States holds a precious and weighty leadership role in helping to keep our world safe from those elements and regimes that plot every day against freedom and its enduring principles. We steadfastly and clearly say to those rogue elements that our nation and our allies cannot afford and will not allow your efforts to succeed. This body has the obligation and the ability to impose sanctions on those countries and factions that are intent on assailing peace and freedom. Within that framework for peace and worldwide security, the cessation of nuclear proliferation will continue to be an unyielding quest. We will strive to lower the number of nuclear weapons that exist across the world and we will tirelessly seek to thwart the development and deployment of nuclear warhead delivery systems. More specifically, let me address another security issue that threatens all our countries, directly or indirectly. Political instability is a major problem within many countries, particularly those who are engaged with us today, on their soil, in the fight against terrorism. Let me quote Mr. Obama directly as he engages our enemies of freedom. Our president stated yesterday â€Å"Let me be clear: Al-Qaida and its allies†¦are in Pakistan and Afghanistan and we have a clear and focused goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (them)† (C-Span, 2009). In that vein, let me also assure each of your nations that our country will not engage in cruel or tortuous practices on any of the combatants that we capture and detain. Let me close by stating that United States foreign policy goals are consistent and congruent with the stated goals of the United Nations. We are honored, one nation in a sea of many, to contribute to the well-being and security of our world. References C-SPAN. (2009, March 27). C-span. org. United Nations. (2009, March). un. org.