GLOBAL PANEL - PRESS RELEASES

International institutions and non-governmental organizations must adapt themselves to address effectively the new security challenges facing the world following the end of the Cold War era, a conference on security heard in Prague.

Speakers at a security debate organized by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and the Global Panel Foundation included senior representatives from NATO, the Commonwealth and NGOs engaged in conflict prevention and resolution across the world.

Chris Donnelly, special advisor for Central and Eastern European affairs to the Secretary General of NATO, said that it was beginning to be recognized that military means alone cannot solve all security problems, and that a "security gap" had emerged.

"We have a situation where the international institutions which were set up for one function – the UN, EU, NATO, ESDP - have not evolved their capacity to deal either with the new kind of threats to security which require a military response or with the threats to security which are not in the military realm at all," he said.

"The war on terrorism is a good example. There is clearly a role for armed force in fighting this, but there is also a role for increasing passive security, reforming intelligence and security services, police forces. "
General Dieter Clauss, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, argued that the West could increasingly expect distant conflicts to spill over into its societies in the form of migration, rising numbers of asylum seekers and the smuggling of humans, drugs or weapons.

"We must also expect more terrorism, more failed states, and failed states could easily become safe havens for terrorists and of course more proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or small non-nuclear arms.

"Solutions to these changes are by no means purely military, and NATO is clearly not the only institution that must adapt to meet them. That said, military capability translates into political credibility and this is a crucial underpinning of our safety and security."

Clauss also argued that September 11 had shown that worldwide cooperation was needed. "NATO has never been a solo player in security," he said. "But we need the UN to provide political legitimacy and civil administration, we need the OSCE to organize elections after a conflict, and we need NGOs to mend the torn fabric of a society that has been at war. And of course we need the European Union to wield its enormous political and economic leverage."

Donnelly told the conference that there was "a very good case" for focusing prevention efforts on countries that could generate terrorism because of poverty, inequalities or a lack of democracy rather than invest in military equipment, but expressed concern that NGOs needed to "refocus" on these issues.

"We cannot deal with these new security problems as nations or international institutions simply by ratcheting up old ideas," he told participants. "Who is addressing the conceptual thought to support policy makers…?" he added.

Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister and current president of the International Crisis Group, said the last decade had seen a retreat by governments from the field of conflict analysis and policy ideas.
"(We have seen) the dumbing down of foreign ministries…over the last decade – the triumph of the treasuries, cost-cutting all over the place resulting in a diminution of resources on the ground, extraordinarily at the very time the international agenda of issues has never been broader."

He said the need for people on the ground to understand what was going on and to translate, communicate information as well as negotiate had never been greater.

"Combine that with the increased security anxieties of countries like the United States to the extent that their missions out there on the ground are like mini-fortresses these days with practically nobody going out and about in the community in the way diplomats traditionally did. I was in Kabul a couple of weeks ago and the US mission there was like Fort Knox. That has meant an increasing reliance on others to fill the analytical and advisory gap," he added.

Amitav Banerji, director of the Office of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, argued that NGOs and broader civil society had a critical part to play in maintaining peace and security worldwide. "NGOs play a vital role in conflict prevention by fostering dialogue," he told the conference. "NGOs, civil society play a vital role in post-conflict rehabilitation – Sierra Leone is one very good example of where this has happened."