Obama To UN: Real Measure Of A Nation’s Strength Is Its People’s Knowledge, Innovation

US President Obama told world leaders at the United Nations today that a nation that tries to repress its people is doomed to failure, and that the new measure of the strength of nations is the success of its people, including their knowledge and creativity. Access to information cannot be defeated due to technology and social media, and the desire of people to choose how they are governed, he said.

Obama also used the opportunity to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement it is negotiating, and make a push for ending HIV/AIDS and pandemics.

The video of the speech is here. The transcript is here.

“Just as force alone cannot impose order internationally, I believe in my core that repression cannot forge the social cohesion for nations to succeed,” Obama said in his speech. “The history of the last two decades proves that in today’s world, dictatorships are unstable. The strongmen of today become the spark of revolution tomorrow. You can jail your opponents, but you can’t imprison ideas. You can try to control access to information, but you cannot turn a lie into truth. It is not a conspiracy of US-backed NGOs that expose corruption and raise the expectations of people around the globe; it’s technology, social media, and the irreducible desire of people everywhere to make their own choices about how they are governed.”

“Indeed, I believe that in today’s world, the measure of strength is no longer defined by the control of territory,” he said. “Lasting prosperity does not come solely from the ability to access and extract raw materials. The strength of nations depends on the success of their people — their knowledge, their innovation, their imagination, their creativity, their drive, their opportunity — and that, in turn, depends upon individual rights and good governance and personal security. Internal repression and foreign aggression are both symptoms of the failure to provide this foundation.