To the Harvard Kennedy School Class of 2023: congratulations!
You have learned so much and done so much in your time with us.
Tomorrow, your graduation from Harvard will become official, and my colleagues and I will hand each of you a diploma as you walk across this stage.
We are looking forward eagerly to sharing that important moment with you—and to the families and friends of the Class of 2023: congratulations to you as well.
These graduations are accomplishments not only of the graduates themselves but of everyone who has supported and encouraged the graduates during their time at the school.
My colleagues and I are thrilled that you're all here with us today—and tomorrow.
Today, it is my great honor and privilege to introduce Harvard Kennedy School's graduation speaker for 2023: former U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Secretary-General Moon is a distinguished global leader as well as an alumnus of the Kennedy School, and we are so lucky to have him with us today on this important occasion.
Secretary-General Moon was a Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School and received his mid-career Master of Public Administration degree in 1984.
Real people.
In fact, he mentioned to me earlier that on Class Day in 1984, he received the Lucius N.
Littauer Award.
He came back to the school in 2017 and served as our Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow.
In that role, he engaged with our students and faculty
and shared lessons from his career—but had to advance the Kennedy School's mission of improving public policy and public leadership around the world.
Indeed, through his lifetime of public service, Secretary-General Moon is an admirable example for anyone seeking to become a principled and effective policy maker and public leader.
Secretary-General Moon had a long and distinguished career in the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
His work included postings to New Delhi, Vienna, and Washington, D.C., including appointments as South Korea's ambassador to Austria and Slovenia and deputy ambassador to the United States.
He also served as Chief National Security Adviser to the president of South Korea among other senior positions.
He became South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2004 and was actively involved in talks with North Korea.
Then, in 2007, he became Secretary-General of the United Nations.
During the following decade, Secretary-General Moon addressed many of the world's most pressing public challenges—including wars, extreme poverty, climate change, humanitarian disasters, gender inequity, and lack of human rights.
His focus on climate helped lead to the landmark Paris Agreement.
He helped to shape the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He spoke out in favor of LGBT rights.
He established an entity at the United Nations known as U.N.
Women, which continues to advance gender equity and women's empowerment today.
Secretary-General Moon also orchestrated reforms of the U.N.'s peacekeeping work, strengthened its humanitarian efforts, and introduced measures to increase transparency and efficiency.
In all these prominent roles—and indeed throughout his life—Secretary-General Moon has demonstrated
a commitment to public service—the same commitment we see in our graduating students,
who plan to serve their communities, their countries, and our shared world in a wide variety of ways.
We are honored and fortunate that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will deliver the graduation address for the Harvard Kennedy School Class of 2023.
Please join me in giving an enthusiastic welcome to Ban Ki-moon!
Thank you for your very warm introduction, School.
Distinguished professors of Harvard Kennedy School—among them, I like to recognize the presence of Professor Graham Allison, my dean at that Time, Prince!
Welcome.
Thank you.
Most importantly, I'd like to really congratulate—you're very proud—Harvard Kennedy School Class of 2023.
Why, Mr.
Congratulations!
I also thank you for all the proud family members of the graduating students.
Welcome to this graduation ceremony!
Welcome among so many family members.
I have just one person to recognize who is here because his son is graduating,
but he is a great leader of the world: His Excellency Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia.
Here he is—a Nobel Peace Laureate of 2016—and, in fact, he is my immediate successor when it comes to the Global Leaders Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School.
Thank you very much—and his wife, Madame Santos.
Thank you again.
My only mission today is to extend why, Mr.
Congratulations—more officially—to all these proud graduating students of Harvard Kennedy School.
Thank you very much—and why, Mr.
Congratulations again!
Thank you.
Exactly 39 years ago, in 1984, I sat here just as you do today and graduated from Harvard Kennedy School with a proud MPA degree.
Therefore, it is a most great privilege for me to stand in front of all of you, HKS Class of 2023—representing the world's top intellectuals from around 90 countries.
Congratulations again!
Thank you.
What an achievement it is for you—this place and the special feeling it instills—has been a lodestar to me both personally and professionally.
And I have always considered Harvard to be a spiritual beacon that grounds me and guides me during my time as Minister and Secretary-General of the United Nations.
On top of many challenges all previous HKS graduates have faced, I am sure you experienced many additional difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic over the last three years.
I'm sure many of you had to recover from contracting COVID-19;
some of you unfortunately had to deal with losing loved ones or with financial hardships;
and I suspect at least some of you had to deal with the great embarrassment of standing up during a Zoom call, forgetting that you are wearing only your pajama pants.
That happened to me too—so I applaud all of you for the resilience, dedication, and perseverance that you have demonstrated in overcoming all these challenges.
If you are like—if you are like I was 39 years ago, I believe that your heart must be full of future plans and passions and confidence—hope—and maybe some anxiety.
That's natural.
My advice: worry about your future—but not too much.
During the summer of 1962,
when I was just a high school boy from Korea—a poverty-shaken country at the time—I joined other Junior Red Cross fellows from
some 40 countries around the world to travel to the United Nations in the United States for the first time in my life.
I was just 18 years old at the time—on August 29th, 1962.
I had the special privilege to visit the White House and meet the namesake of this school, President John F.
Kennedy, and hear him say, 'There are no national boundaries; there is only the question of whether you are ready to extend your helping hand.'
How inspiring!
I was really inspired—even though I was just a young boy—I knew that I should do something for the world.
My eyes were open to the importance of public service and global citizenship.
His words altered the trajectory of my life—and they continue to steer me even today.
Twenty-one years later, in 1983—after I had just arrived at the Harvard Kennedy School as a diplomat pursuing my MPA degree—there were many students.
And there were some introductory sessions, and I think Dean Allison will remember: I introduced myself—'My name is JFK.'
People were wondering why.
'No, I'm just from Korea.'
I think Dean Allison can testify whether this is true or not.
Then what happened many years later when I was elected as Secretary-General?
It was reported in the newspaper The New York Times that Mr.
Ban, the new Secretary-General, had met JFK.
Then Edward Kennedy, who was a Senator at the time, felt very curious.
He came to the Presidential Library and he checked all these records and he saw the picture which was taken with Kennedy.
He just retrieved a copy of President Kennedy's and he made a nice frame and he came to my office and presented it to me as a gift.
There he said, 'JFK meets JFK!'
Why?
Mr.
Ban, congratulations!
If you come to Seoul, please call me.
I can show it—it is still proudly displayed in my office.
Dear HKS Class of 2023, the world was then very different from today's world,
and now it is characterized by unprecedented outbreaks and pandemics, U.S.–China relationship tensions,
Russia's illegal aggression against Ukraine, and many types of strife and conflict—not to mention the interconnected world of globalization, the urgent climate crisis, due to transboundary issues and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Encompassing all these issues, allow me to focus my remarks on just the two issues which I believe are essential for young people to build a sustainable, inclusive, secure, and prosperous future.
First, freedom and justice should be mutually reinforced in an interconnected world where narratives of the future global order are being increasingly contested.
Against this spectrum, I am gravely concerned that the ongoing war in Ukraine has now continued into a second, bloodier war.
Russia's invasion flagrantly violated the rule of international law that has been maintained since the end of the Second World War,
and it tests—even paralyzes—the United Nations Security Council and its ability to respond.
Multilateralism is in danger at the invitation of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,
together with President Santos—who is here—we both visited Ukraine last August,
last year, and we visited Europe and we saw first hand these terrible, unacceptable atrocities committed against them.
It was a crime against humanity.
I'm deeply concerned and disappointed that many countries around the world have been keeping silence.
I and President Santos have spoken out: neutrality is not an option—you must speak out against this injustice.
Standing before you, let me reiterate again that the 'Y' in Ukraine is directly related to the fundamental issue of justice that all enlightened human beings and virtuous societies must faithfully pursue.
While serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I have witnessed many such atrocities.
Each time, I have been speaking out: 'Justice will prevail—if not today, tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then surely in the near future.
Justice will prevail,' and we have to walk so that justice will prevail.
Second, we must do more to cultivate and expand the great virtue of global citizenship—with compassion—to be a global citizen and leverage the power of compassion.
It is a significant step as an individual to create a brighter future for all of humanity and our planet.
Today, 8 billion people live on our planet.
I have met people from all around the world who possess enormous amounts of passion and courage.
Passion and courage constitute a significant portion of human power, but they are valuable only when compelled by compassion.
A grave consequence of Putin's reckless and passionate push to resurrect Russia's past glory—in the absence of compassion—is the current brutal war in Ukraine.
On the other hand, global citizens care and collaborate beyond national borders.
They are compassionate and tolerant of other people and other cultures.
They are willing to fight for our planet and the human rights and equality for all, making sure that no one is left behind.
That's the main purpose and ideal of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which has adopted during my time on September 25th, 2015.
Global citizens build bridges rather than erecting walls.
They walk alongside others on issues such as climate change, sustainable development, and gender equality.
I have a lifelong motto that comes from an ancient Chinese scholar, Chuang Tzu, his classic on Taoism,
and he says, 'The highest virtue of a human being is to flow like water.'
What does this mean?
This has always spoken deeply to me because water is the element that not only symbolizes wisdom, flexibility, and quiet strength, but also compassion.
This has really been guiding me while serving as Secretary-General and now in 2023, Harvard Kennedy School.
The world's people and planet Earth itself are suffering from climate change, poverty, and natural disasters,
and it would be very remiss for me not to say a few words about the climate crisis.
The IPCC—as you must have read many times in the newspaper,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—in its latest report states that we are now unlikely to achieve
the Paris climate change agreement goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.
Which is less than seven years away.
The unprecedented and frequent wildfires, the long spells of droughts, uncontrollable floods,
food shortages due to crop failures, and climbing refugee numbers, as well as the resulting political
and economic fallout from these increasingly severe and frequent events—all these things will require time to reverse course, and they will get much worse without effective adaptation efforts.
There will be no words to sugarcoat this coming world: a 1.5-degree planet that will increasingly resemble the bleak dystopian worlds depicted in science fiction movies.
My generation and I will not be around much longer.
To be frank, I regret that we are passing on this impending existential threat to you, young generation.
But the fact of the matter is that today's world leaders have just fulfilled miserably by putting selfish national interests ahead of urgent global needs.
I have been challenging many global leaders, pleading to take urgent action on climate change.
Their answer is, 'Secretary-General, I will do that—but please let me be first re-elected; then I'll do that.'
That was a very irresponsible response.
I'm now urging again: world leaders must take urgent action to make sure that our human beings and our planet Earth can continue sustainably and safely.
The world leaders have failed to see the big picture—that the world will sink or swim together.
What they have decided to do is play a dangerous game of chicken, demanding that others do more to curb CO2 emissions.
They have utterly failed to grasp that the urgencies are too great and that the problem is too big to let others deal with it.
Dear young future leaders, I urge you to speak out and act.
Challenge your leaders.
Tell them that this is the world where I myself—and my succeeding generations—will have to live in a peaceful, sustainable way.
This is what you have the prerogative to do.
You have the power to change our world.
I'm really asking you, Class of 2023, as soon as you go out, please challenge your leaders about this matter.
I really urge you.
The world leaders must master the necessary political will.
The developed countries should fulfill their promise of 100 billion dollars per year in climate finance,
and all the countries—especially those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change—have access to the resources and technologies to adapt.
Carbon neutrality by 2050 is a must.
To achieve a climate-friendly and sustainable world, it is up to your generation to fix what my generation failed to fix in this regard.
Let the famous words of President Kennedy inspire and guide us.
I quote: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things not because they are easy but because they are hard."
Unquote.
Today, if you choose to save our planet from climate extinction—not because it is easy but because it is hard and urgent—you can be the heroes that will accomplish the audacious mission.
Either mankind will put an end to the climate crisis, or the climate crisis will put an end to humankind.
In fact, scientists have been warning that the sixth mass extinction may occur in a hundred years.
Do you know when the fifth mass extinction happened?
It happened 65 million years ago.
While then, at this time in the 21st century, we should be afraid of a possible sixth mass extinction.
Extinction means that more than 70 percent of all species will perish.
We must keep this warning by the world's scientists—and now more than ever before—the world needs a new generation of thinkers and doers like yourself.
We need thinkers who can see the scale of the intertwined challenges before us, and we need globally minded doers who can step up and act—but can also extend our helping hand.
Here, HKS Class of 2023, as I conclude my remarks, let me quote again what JFK said—as a presidential candidate—in July 1960:
"We stand today on the edge of a new frontier, the frontier of the 1960s: of plenty of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats."
How fitting a warning this is!
The remarks of 60 years ago seem prescient and even befitting of the realities of our world today.
As you leave this place—Harvard Kennedy School—you will still be facing unknown opportunities and perils.
I'm confident that great things will await you as you move forward with your lives and careers all around the world.
And I'll take this opportunity to respectfully call on you to manage your lives—and that is free, just, and considerate of others and our planet.
Please remember that you have benefited immensely, and you should be ready to return those benefits to others,
because you hold the keys to unlocking a brighter future for all of us—including yourselves.
We only have one planet, and our ability to share and sustain it together will dictate the viability of our collective sustainable future.
The challenges we are facing now are simply unprecedented, so our response must be equally unprecedented.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear students, let us walk together to help realize a better and sustainable future for all.
This is our moral responsibility.
My prime minister—congratulations to all of you again—to the Harvard Kennedy School Class of 2023.
God bless you.
Thank you all for your kind attention.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Secretary-General Ban, for your wisdom, your advice, your humor, and your call to action.
That concludes our event for here today.
Hope you have a wonderful rest of the afternoon and evening, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Thank you, everybody.
