National egoism is worthless

National egoism is worthless as a regulatory principle for our world! For this worldview describes the world as an arena, a kind of battleground, in which everyone is fighting against everyone else and in which everyone has to assert their own interests, either alone or in alliances of convenience. In this worldview, the law of the strongest prevails, not the strength of the law. Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that we have to rise against this worldview. We need more international cooperation and less national egoism, not the other way round. The motto ‘our country first’ not only leads to more national confrontations and less prosperity. In the end, there will only be losers. In international cooperation, no one loses sovereignty. Rather we all gain new sovereignty which we could no longer have as nation-states on our own in today’s world. 

Germany Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, in remarks to the United Nation’s Assembly’s 72nd annual general meeting in September 2017.