In the long run, we can only survive in a
disarmed world, where military technology is forbidden ever again
to lead us down this path. In such a world, how "policing" and
"sanctions" will be managed will no doubt not be difficult to
arrange - nations no longer in fear will not find it so difficult
to concede sovereignty.
And in the long run, we can only survive in
living partnership with natural resources, through sustainable and
co-operative technologies and human behaviour. How sanctions and
policing will be applied here, too, will be much easier to decide
for generations not plagued by poverty and distorted sets of
values, but participating in local and global governance.
To define the roots of peace we must redefine
security. True security rests on a supportive and sustainable
ecological base, on spiritual as well as material well- being, on
trust and reliance on one's neighbours, on justice and
understanding in a disarmed world. Getting there requires all our
present institutions - nations, states, the United Nations, the
banks and commercial companies, the major alliances, the
superpowers - to take concerted action. Real security is common
security.
This redefinition is urgent because the daily
survival of people in all countries, their human rights, and the
viability of their governments are being jeopardized by problems of
local, regional and global scale. The new security recognizes the
growth of political, social, economic, and even military
interdependences between nations. And it seeks to address the
threatening crises of economic collapse, pollution, population
pressures, widening poverty gaps, food shortages, climate change,
and decline of life systems such as soil, fresh water, genetic
material, and forests. Security is also coming to mean security of
the foundations of peace - consensus, law, social justice and
sustainable development.
Security covering this wide range of elements can
no longer be achieved through military force - if it ever was - nor
can it be achieved unilaterally, Security for one's own country
must take into account that of one's neighbours. Security in the
broad sense can, in today's world and tomorrow's, only be achieved
with other countries; it can no longer be achieved against
them.