(VNF) - President Obama conceded that the United States and other world powers have limited ability to solve the most profound challenges facing the world, while calling for a “course correction” for globalization to ensure that nations don’t retreat into a more sharply pided world.

“We are seeing the same forces of global integration that have made us interdependent also expose deep fault lines in the existing international order,” Mr. Obama said, in his final speech to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly on September 20^th. “In order to move forward...,” the president said, “we do have to acknowledge that the existing path to global integration requires a course correction.”

President Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP)

As he begins, President Obama says the world is both more prosperous and less violent than it was at the end of the Cold War, and yet it is more uncertain and filled with strife. "We must go forward and not backward," he says. "Those who deny others dignity are subject to public reproach."

He also said that the biggest conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate rather than tackle them inpidually, adding that he knows “we can’t do this alone.”

"We must reject any forms of fundamentalism or racism," President Obama says, as he turns to the importance of embracing tolerance. He warns against leaders who seek legitimacy "not because of policies or programs, but by resorting to demonizing other religious sects."

"If our religion leads us to persecute those of another faith," he says, or to jail gay people or undercut the rights of women and girls, then we lose our power as an international community.

Obama then references the fight against ISIS, calling the group a "mindless medieval menace."

"There is a military component" to fighting the group, he says, and diplomacy is a key tool for peace.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed the war in Syria in a speech to the assembly, saying, "There is no military solution."

"Gulfs of mistrust pide citizens from their leaders. Extremists push people into camps of 'us' and 'them,' " Ban said. "The Earth assails us with rising seas, record heat and extreme storms. And danger defines the days of many."

President Obama calls on world leaders to implement the Paris climate agreement, saying a focus on combating climate change is "not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," and that if climate change continues unabated, it will, among other things, fuel "conflicts born of despair."

“We must go forward, and not backward.” That will involve continuing the push to make the global economy work better -- not just for those at the top.

"The cure for what ails our democracies is greater engagement, not less," he says. He also argues that trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership are important tools for lifting people out of poverty, but that rich countries must do more to help the poor around the world.

As he closes, the president also quotes Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote, “Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God,” and he exhorted the U.N. to join him in being co-workers with god. “Our identities do not have to be defined by putting someone else down, but can be enhanced by lifting somebody else up,” he said. “They don’t have to be defined in opposition to others, but rather by a belief in liberty and equality and justice and fairness.”

"I see that spirit in our young people around the world," he says. The next generation is "more educated and more tolerant and more inclusive and more perse than our generation. They are more empathetic and compassionate toward their fellow human beings."

Minh Phuong