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2010 - The Challenges to Global Security: Clifford BEAL
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22/12/99
Clifford
BEALEDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY
As
this century comes to its end, it is understandable that the public mood
turns to reflection. Around the world, attention now centres on the hopes
and fears for the next millennium. A similar mood prevailed at the turn of the last century, when advances in technology combined with new social awareness to create cultural anxieties during the fin de siècle . Within a few years of this century's beginning, the world fought the most horrific war in history and then suffered an even more monstrous cataclysm in the space of a generation. The past 50 years witnessed mankind balancing precariously on the edge of a thermonuclear precipice.
The challenges to the global community poverty and redistribution of wealth, ethnic warfare, weapons of mass destruction, natural and man-made environmental disasters are daunting. They are also made more manifest by the limits on co-operative effort in a world where the nation-state still holds sway. National self-interest and global common good often remain at odds. New technologies in communications, transport, medicine, and computing can help combat these problems, but ultimately, it is new ideas that determine human progress. The expansion of democratic values worldwide in the last decade is an enormous achievement, creating common ground for mutual understanding and a lessening of conflict. But much work remains.
The publication that you now hold was born out of an idea to pose one broad question to a selection of world leaders: What is the greatest challenge to global security in the next five to 10 years?
Jane's Defence Weekly assembled a list of heads-of-state, UN officials, and chiefs of major non-governmental organisations that would give a forum for voices from around the globe. Most accepted our invitation to contribute. Some did not. While the resulting work may not offer a complete geographical balance, it still exhibits a wide range of opinions on what lies ahead.
There is strong criticism here, but, overall, it is a hopeful vision one that will require committed and innovative leadership at the national and international levels to become a reality.
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Clifford BEAL
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2010
- The Challenges To Global Security | Foreword:
Cliff Beal | King
Abdullah II | Kofi
Annan | Ehud Barak
| Tony Blair | Jacques
Chirac | Bill
Clinton | Sadako
Ogato | James
Orbinski | Romano
Prodi | Lord
Robertson Of Port Ellen | Mary
Robinson | Javier
Solana | Cornelio
Sommaruga | James
Wolfensohn | Postscript:
Edward N. Luttwak | Postscript:
Lawrence Freedman