Catalyze June 22

ALTERNATIVE
APPROACHES TO
SOLVING THE SDG'S
A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H P A T R I C K
T H E R O S : F O R M E R U S
A M B A S S A D O R T O Q A T A R
Patrick Theros:
I don't think we could further the Sustainable Development Goals simply by working
with one country. What you need is for the United States to assemble a collective of
like-minded countries. Countries that while, not exactly the same, are committed to
seven to ten of the goals, and regard the others as okay is about the best you are going
to do at the beginning. It's a question of building a sufficient mass of countries around
the world. They can't all be in one continent. Perhaps the one thing that should define
these countries is a commitment to popular participation in government. Maybe you
don't call it democracy as we have it, but countries that have the interests of their
people at heart because their people are the ones who decide who rules them So then
once you have this coalition together - and it's not gonna be the - then you can start
working on advancing the goals. In some cases, some countries are better at advancing
some goals than other countries at others. It has to be a coherent effort in which some
countries take the lead on some things. The United States being the United States is
obviously gonna bear a larger burden than almost any other country in that coalition,
but you can't do it by yourself.
George Sifakis:
And as a former ambassador, you've seen things that many have not, and you've been
involved in so many different negotiations and dialogues with other nations and
leaders across the planet. What do you believe is the most important quality to ensure
peaceful, mutually beneficial partnerships amongst nations?
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