CIAO DATE: 02/02

Transcript of speech at Kennedy School: 'Searching for Security in a Changing World'

Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As soon as I first learned that I would come to speak at Harvard, I began to prepare my remarks. Therefore, I had practically completed them when the unspeakable events happened. That unprecedented surge of evil may one day come to be regarded as an historical watershed, an infamous hallmark.

Today it may be too soon to assess fully this black episode in the broader context of modern history. Yet one thing is certain. We knew on that day that the world shook, something had ended and something new had begun.

In the three weeks that followed so much was said that I will not tax your attention with my analyses of those events. I will only say that I have made an appeal to the United Nations and the Heads of Member States. I called for a Summit to be convened under the aegis of the United Nations, in order to address the means for fighting terrorism and the sources that feed it — aggressive nationalism, aggressive separatism, xenophobia, and any form of fanaticism and bigotry. If we are able to unite around certain common principles, then the resolutions of such a Summit can be binding.

— His Excellency Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia

Full Text of Speech Transcript (pdf)