Conflicting international priorities

There is no international consensus on human priorities, and a constant struggle for time, money, human, technical and material resources diverts a great amount of energy into political and ideological conflict. Local priorities obscure national priorities, and national priorities obscure international ones. The divisive forces in world society are endless. Although some progress is being made, international efforts to secure agreements are pursued on a piecemeal basis. The development of world agendas may be said to have begun in recent years, with the focusing on anywhere from two dozen to over a hundred key problems, but it is impossible to find world agreement as to which have more claim to immediate attention than others and the means to deal with them.

The response of the international community to the conflict in Yugoslavia is a classic example of failure to reach agreement.