Thomas Hobbes

aces a realist geopolitical vision inspired by a Bambara proverb: *"The tastiness of some people's sauce depends on the theft of others' cattle."* As Hobbes noted, *"Man is a wolf to man."* This reflects the reality of international relations and the plunder of Africa’s resources for others’ benefit. The

As a young man, I opposed the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and the concept that man is a wolf to man. Time has shown that he was deeply wrong. For those who have not read his book, I would also recommend a bo

weaker groups, while rapidly adapting and growing our economy. We know it can be done. We suffered for a long time from the international community’s Hobbesian conviction that liberty could about bring chaos, and that bad leadership is better than no leadership.

of the universal” advocated by my illustrious compatriot, the late President and poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, man will no longer be a wolf to man, as Hobbes said. Instead, as the saying in our country goes, man will become a remedy to man. We owe that to ourselves and to future generations.

veness, we need to reform the Organization along the way, respect agreed norms and honour our commitments in good faith. We recall that a return to a Hobbesian world is always possible and that some people continue actively to bring it about. That is why Poland felt sorely tried under the effects of the t

in focused on upholding the great gains of our civilization. Human rights take pride of place among those achievements. Sometimes we cannot avoid the Hobbesian dilemma between security and freedom. Still, we must be aware that the sacrifice of freedom for security frequently results in achieving neither.

rules, agreements and civilized norms have come into play as much as traditional regulators. Until the modern era we lived in what might be called a Hobbesian world, where conflict, rather than cooperation, was the defining characteristic of relations between nations. Basically, international relations w

her democratic forces. Looking at the areas of conflict, it appears as if, all of a sudden, the conclusion of the cold war has given way to a kind of Hobbesian state of nature in which peoples and nations are caught in perpetual conflict and competition over land, resources, food, labour and markets. In t

Although the great eighteenth-century English philosopher Hobbes said in his Leviathan that man's life is short, nasty and brutish, we, after going through the catalogue of problems and misfortunes besetting the wo

hat in its ideals, in its practices and in its Charter (Mr. Barrow, Belize) the United Nations system is the great bulwark preventing the horror of a Hobbesian vision from becoming the central reality of international affairs.

h cannot be confused with mere absence of war. This idea is not mine nor is it a modern one; it was put forward by the utilitarian philosopher Thomas Hobbes when he said: "For Warre, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is