Tonight's guests are Ban Ki-moon on The Daily Show and Henry Kissinger on The Colbert Report.
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His priorities have been to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He has sought to be a bridge-builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and to strengthen the Organization itself.
"I grew up in war", the Secretary-General has said, "and saw the United Nations help my country to recover and rebuild. That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service. As Secretary-General, I am determined to see this Organization deliver tangible, meaningful results that advance peace, development and human rights."
Mr. Ban took office on 1 January 2007. On 21 June 2011, he was unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly and will continue to serve until 31 December 2016.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon Urges Bashar al-Assad To Seek Political Solution To Syria Crisis
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar al-Assad to seek a political solution to Syria's war, saying this would help international efforts against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, al-Hayat newspaper reported on Wednesday.
In an interview with the pan-Arab daily, Ban said years of war between Assad's forces and armed rebel groups had allowed militants such as Islamic State to take root in the region.
Asked whether Assad would have any role to play in an international coalition being assembled to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the U.N. chief said Assad could contribute by working politically towards an end to the war in his country.
"He (Assad) can play a role through ending the crisis as soon as possible and engaging in political dialog," the London-based, Saudi-owned newspaper quoted him as saying.
Culture of Peace to counter violence and hatred - Ban Ki-moon
On Tuesday, Ban Ki-moon shared ideas on ways to build and promote a "Culture of peace", which are a set of values, attitudes and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes.
The concept of a culture of peace was born 25 years ago with the UNESCO-supported International Congress of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.
Ban Ki-moon said today, the Culture of Peace is challenged due to conflict, extremism and violence.
“I am convinced that our strongest arsenal in the face of these threats is not weapons or missiles or guns. It is our shared values, our common vision for peace, development and human rights, our universal aspiration for a meaningful culture of peace."
I think we will be discussing the mess that is foreign relations today, ISIS annexing Syria and Iraq and Russia annexing the Ukraine and what is looking more like a new war in the Middle East.
Colbert's guest tonight is Dr Henry Killinger And His Magic Murder Bag
Oh, wait that is wrong. It is Henry Kissinger and he is on to talk New World Order. Wait, that is still wrong. He is on to discuss his new book World Order.
There has never been a true “world order,” Kissinger observes. For most of history, civilizations defined their own concepts of order. Each considered itself the center of the world, and envisioned its distinct principles as universally relevant. China conceived of a global cultural hierarchy with the Emperor at its pinnacle. In Europe, Rome imagined itself surrounded by barbarians; when Rome fragmented, European peoples refined a concept of an equilibrium of sovereign states and sought to export it across the world. Islam considered itself the world’s sole legitimate political unit, destined to expand indefinitely until the world was brought into harmony by Muslim principles. The United States was born of a conviction about the universal applicability of democratic principles—a conviction that has guided its policies ever since.
Now international affairs take place on a global basis, and these historic concepts of world order are meeting. Every region participates in questions of high policy in every other, often instantaneously. Yet there is no consensus among the major actors about the rules and limits guiding this process, or its ultimate destination. The result is mounting tension.
Grounded in Kissinger’s deep study of history and experience as national security advisor and secretary of state, World Order guides readers on a tour of the globe. It examines the events and ideas that formed the historic concepts of order, their manifestations in contemporary controversies, and the ways in which they might ultimately be reconciled.
Provocative and articulate, blending historical insight with prognostication, World Order is a unique work that could only come from a lifelong diplomat.
Long View of History Includes Today In ‘World Order,’ Henry Kissinger Sums Up His Philosophy
This book is less concerned than Mr. Kissinger’s earlier ones — including “Diplomacy” (1994), which this volume draws upon heavily at times — with spinning or with rationalizing his own policy-making record as national security adviser and secretary of state under President Richard M. Nixon. Still, there are troubling passages: the handful of pages dealing with Vietnam, for instance, will remind many readers of Mr. Kissinger’s disingenuousness on that subject. Once again, he sidesteps questions about decisions that he and Mr. Nixon made that prolonged and expanded the war, as well as their devastating consequences.
He doesn’t provide a plausible explanation for why he supported the invasion of Iraq, a position that weirdly aligned him more with Wilsonian neo-conservatives eager to export democracy than with realists like his former associate Brent Scowcroft, who presciently warned of the dangers of implementing regime change in Iraq. Instead, Mr. Kissinger talks vaguely about his respect and affection for President George W. Bush, praising him for guiding the country “with courage, dignity and conviction in an unsteady time.”
Mr. Kissinger also plays down his role as an informal, outside adviser to the George W. Bush White House. (In his 2006 book, “State of Denial,” Bob Woodward wrote that Mr. Kissinger had “a powerful, largely invisible influence” on that administration’s foreign policy, and met regularly with Vice President Dick Cheney.)
In this book’s most compelling sections, Mr. Kissinger uses his realpolitik lens (with its emphasis on balance of power, linkage and triangular diplomacy) as a revealing prism by which to look at, say, the roots of World War I and the sources of conflict in the modern Middle East. He similarly uses his knowledge of various countries’ historical proclivities and their self-image over the centuries as a frame of reference for current developments like the Arab Spring and America’s increasingly ambivalent role on the world stage.
Mr. Kissinger, renowned as a practitioner of realpolitik, often sounds as if he were mouthing platitudes when he tries to articulate the importance of the idealistic strain in American diplomacy.
It sounds like it will be a bunch of spin trying to justify the backward and wrong way the US has engaged the rest of the world. Colbert is always a much better interviewer when it comes to slicing through rightwing spin, so hopefully it will be an entertaining interview.
This Week's Guests
THE DAILY SHOW
Th 9/11: Tavis Smiley
THE COLBERT REPORT
Th 9/11: Lonn Taylor