The U.N. bureaucracy has grown to elephantine proportions. Now that the Cold War is over, we are asking that elephant to do gymnastics.

Summary

This quote suggests that the United Nations (U.N.), with its large bureaucracy, has become excessively large and inefficient. With the end of the Cold War, the world's political landscape has changed, and the U.N. is expected to adapt accordingly. However, the metaphor of an elephant doing gymnastics highlights the difficulties and challenges faced by the U.N. in effectively responding to these new global dynamics. It implies that the U.N. might struggle to navigate this transformed environment due to its unwieldy and outdated structure.

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