The Conclusion

He closed the book. The Charter was not a cure for war; it was a conversation, ongoing and agonizing, meant to prevent the world from sliding back into the abyss. It was, as the first Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld famously said, created not to take humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell.

Elias stood, smoothed his suit, and walked toward the exit. The work was incomplete. It always would be. But as long as the Charter remained the common language of the world, there was, at the very least, a place to hold the argument.