The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could. It is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine…a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.
Conor Cruise O'Brien Quotes
The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail, and to be seen to fail.
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| Birth: | 3rd November, 1917 |
| Death: | 18th December, 2008 |
| Nationality: | Irish |
| Profession: | Diplomat, Journalist, Politician, Professor, Writer |
About
Conor Cruise O'Brien was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was an Irish diplomat, politician, professor, writer and journalist. He was a diplomat at the UN, a professor in the US, the Editor-in-Chief of 'The Observer' Sunday newspaper in Britain and a writer whose work commanded attention throughout the English-speaking world. During his career as a civil servant O'Brien worked on the government's anti-partition campaign. At the 1969 general election, he was elected to Ireland's parliament as a Labour Party TD for Dublin North–East becoming a Minister from 1973–77. He was later known primarily as an author and as a columnist for the Irish Independent.
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