Maintaining global security

The world's foremost regional (Europe) and interregional security structure (Europe and North America) is the [North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)], and its Partnership for Peace arrangement for the European continent. Regional security structures in Europe are further provided by by the European Union, the West European Union, and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). In other continents, regional security structures and their implications for regional peacekeeping and conflict resolution are less-evolved or non-existent, with the latter being the case in Asia and the Pacific. In Africa, the Organization for African Unity (OAU) is developing. Up to now, the Organization of American States has been ineffective with important issues.

2. More than ever the world needs a global system of comprehensive security based on cooperation and nonviolent means. This will require a wide-ranging transformation of security concepts, the commitment of far greater financial and human resource, and a serious of major institutional and policy changes. The latter should include preventative diplomacy, peaceful settlement of disputes, minimum-force peace-keeping and much reduced conventional arms production and transfers. A democratized and reformed UN could play a crucial role in bringing such a system into being. At the same time more sustained effort must be made by citizens of all countries to help bring together nations and people at risk of, or engaged in, military confrontation. If reconciliation and mutual tolerance are not active political and social priorities, few disarmament proposals hold any chance of success.