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To the Pugwash Community Global Cooperation: A 21st Century Imperative The global effect of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, DC demonstrated yet again that, in today's world, national security no longer is confined within national boundaries. Fully one-third of the more than 3,200 people killed in the attacks were non-Americans, citizens of more than 60 countries. The economic and social impacts of the terror attacks were similarly global; in addition to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US and worldwide, World Bank President James Wolfensohn estimated that that "between 20,000 and 40,000 more children" would die, and millions of people would be "condemned to live below the poverty line" because of the global recession that became more severe because of September 11. The terrorist networks responsible for the attacks operate in many countries around the world; the financial network supporting the terrorists is truly global, as must be the intelligence and law enforcement effort needed to identify and bring such groups to justice. While the benefits of globalization are indeed many, it is also true that the links between different terrorist organizations fighting for different causes, and the states which harbor and support them, are made all the easier by globalizing trends in communications, transportation, technology, and the world of finance. If the latter half of the 20th century was the nuclear age, the 21st century may well become the age of asymmetrical warfare. It has been estimated that between $500,000 and one million dollars was needed to plan and carry out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, resulting in global financial and economic losses of tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Small groups of individuals, characterized by fanatical commitment, patience, intelligence, and a ready willingness to die for their cause, are able to circumvent if not neutralize the military power of modern industrial states. For those countries possessing nuclear weapons, the concept of nuclear deterrence in such scenarios is not only irrelevant, but counter-productive, in that the nuclear (and biological or chemical) technology and materials developed by such countries could well be turned against them in a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction. To be truly effective, an international effort to neutralize the dangers of horrific terrorist attacks, especially those using weapons of mass destruction or those targeted against nuclear power plants, food and water supplies, and critical infrastructure, must consist of the widest possible global coalition. Forging and maintaining such a coalition will not, of course, be easy. First, there remain tremendous political, ideological, religious, and ethnic differences between the West, the former socialist countries, Asian, Arab, and Muslim countries, and Africa and Latin America. Such differences are manifest when it comes to issues such as: controlling weapons of mass destruction and ensuring regional security; international humanitarian intervention to prevent mass killings and gross abuses of human rights; and fundamental questions of national sovereignty relating to minority rights and self-determination. Through its work over more than four decades, the Pugwash Conferences have sought to narrow these differences between states and peoples in an effort to strengthen the modalities for greater international cooperation. Such efforts are needed now more than ever if both the manifestations and root causes of terrorism are to be successfully addressed. As symbolized by the awarding of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations and its Secretary General, Kofi Annan, these efforts will demand the closest possible cooperation between national governments, NGOs, and regional and international institutions such as the UN that can articulate a broad-based vision of human security for the 21st century.
Having postponed the 51st Pugwash Conference (originally scheduled for November in Agra, India) because of the September 11 terror attacks, the Pugwash Council proceeded to meet in London from 8-11 November, at which time it was decided to reschedule the Agra conference to 12-16 March 2002. Council members felt that unfolding events in Afghanistan, Pakistan, throughout South Asia and globally made it all the more important to proceed with the 51st Pugwash Conference in India. A central focus of the conference will be the implications of global terrorism on national and international security, and in particular the prospect of terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction (see the statement of the Pugwash Council on page 3).
A three-day celebration in Oslo from 6-8 December marked the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the Nobel Peace Prize. Sir Joseph Rotblat and Francesco Calogero, the latter representing the Pugwash Conferences, were among more than 20 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates attending the ceremonies. For more on the events in Oslo, including a talk by Francesco Calogero on the dangers of nuclear terrorism, and a congratulatory letter from Pugwash to this year's Nobel Laureate, the United Nations and Kofi Annan, visit the Pugwash website at www.pugwash.org. Acknowledgments Pugwash would like
to thank the Italian National Research Council, the German Research
Society, the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation for their support of the Pugwash Newsletter,
the Pugwash website, and other Pugwash publications. The Editors |