A more secure world:
Our shared responsibility
Report of the High-level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -
United Nations
2004

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A more secure world:
Our shared responsibility
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In his address to the General Assembly in September 2003, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Member States that the United Nations
had reached a fork in the road. It could rise to the challenge of meeting new
threats or it could risk erosion in the face of mounting discord between States
and unilateral action by them. He created the High-level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change to generate new ideas about the kinds of policies and
institutions required for the UN to be effective in the 21st century.
In its report, the High-level Panel sets out a bold, new vision of collective security
for the 21st century. We live in a world of new and evolving threats, threats that
could not have been anticipated when the UN was founded in 1945 ­ threats like
nuclear terrorism, and State collapse from the witch's brew of poverty, disease and
civil war.
In today's world, a threat to one is a threat to all. Globalization means that a
major terrorist attack anywhere in the industrial world would have devastating
consequences for the well-being of millions in the developing world. Any one of
700 million international airline passengers every year can be an unwitting
carrier of a deadly infectious disease. And the erosion of State capacity anywhere
in the world weakens the protection of every State against transnational threats
such as terrorism and organized crime. Every State requires international
cooperation to make it secure.
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There are six clusters of threats with which the world must be concerned now
and in the decades ahead:
· war between States;
· violence within States, including civil wars, large-scale human rights abuses
and genocide;
· poverty, infectious disease and environmental degradation;
· nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons;
· terrorism; and
· transnational organized crime.
The good news is that the United Nations and our collective security institutions
have shown that they can work. More civil wars ended through negotiation in
the past 15 years than the previous 200. In the 1960s, many believed that by now
15-25 States would possess nuclear weapons; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty has helped prevent this. The World Health Organization helped to stop
the spread of SARS before it killed tens of thousands, perhaps more.
But these accomplishments can be reversed. There is a real danger that they
will be, unless we act soon to strengthen the United Nations, so that in future
it responds effectively to the full range of threats that confront us.
Policies for prevention
Meeting the challenge of today's threats means getting serious about preven-
tion; the consequences of allowing latent threats to become manifest, or of
allowing existing threats to spread, are simply too severe.
Development has to be the first line of defence for a collective security system that
takes prevention seriously. Combating poverty will not only save millions of lives
but also strengthen States' capacity to combat terrorism, organized crime and
proliferation. Development makes everyone more secure. There is an agreed inter-
national framework for how to achieve these goals, set out in the Millennium
Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus, but implementation lags.
Biological security must be at the forefront of prevention. International
response to HIV/AIDS was shockingly late and shamefully ill-resourced. It is
urgent that we halt and roll back this pandemic. But we will have to do more.
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A more secure world: Our shared responsibility

Our global public health system has deteriorated and is ill-equipped to protect us
against existing and emerging deadly infectious diseases. The report recommends
a major initiative to build public health capacity throughout the developing
world, at both local and national levels. This will not only yield direct bene-
fits by preventing and treating disease in the developing world itself, but will
also provide the basis for an effective global defence against bioterrorism and
overwhelming natural outbreaks of infectious disease.
Preventing wars within States and between them is also in the collective
interest of all. If we are to do better in future, the UN will need real improve-
ments to its capacity for preventive diplomacy and mediation. We will have to build
on the successes of regional organizations in developing strong norms to protect
Governments from unconstitutional overthrow, and to protect minority rights.
And we will have to work collectively to find new ways of regulating the man-
agement of natural resources, competition for which often fuels conflict.
Preventing the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons is
essential if we are to have a more secure world. This means doing better at
reducing demand for these weapons, and curbing the supply of weapons materials.
It means living up to existing treaty commitments, including for negotiations
towards disarmament. And it means enforcing international agreements. The
report puts forward specific recommendations for the creation of incentives for
States to forego the development of domestic uranium enrichment and repro-
cessing capacity. It urges negotiations for a new arrangement which would
enable the International Atomic Energy Agency to act as a guarantor for the
supply of fissile material to civilian nuclear users at market rates, and it calls
on Governments to establish a voluntary time-limited moratorium on the con-
struction of new facilities for uranium enrichment and reprocessing, matched
by a guarantee of the supply of fissile materials by present suppliers.
Terrorism is a threat to all States, and to the UN as a whole. New aspects of
the threat ­ including the rise of a global terrorist network, and the potential
for terrorist use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons ­ require new responses.
The UN has not done all that it can. The report urges the United Nations to
forge a strategy of counterterrorism that is respectful of human rights and the
rule of law. Such a strategy must encompass coercive measures when necessary,
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and create new tools to help States combat the threat domestically. The report
provides a clear definition of terrorism, arguing that it can never be justified,
and calls on the General Assembly of the UN to overcome its divisions and
finally conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism.
The spread of transnational organized crime increases the risk of all the
other threats. Terrorists use organized criminal groups to move money, men
and materials around the globe. Governments and rebels sell natural resources
through criminal groups to finance wars. States' capacity to establish the rule
of law is weakened by corruption. Combating organized crime is essential for
helping States build the capacity to exercise their sovereign responsibilities ­
and in combating the hideous traffic in human beings.
Response to threats
Of course, prevention sometimes fails. At times, threats will have to be met
by military means.
The UN Charter provides a clear framework for the use of force. States have
an inherent right to self-defence, enshrined in Article 51. Long-established
customary international law makes it clear that States can take military action
as long as the threatened attack is imminent, no other means would deflect it,
and the action is proportionate. The Security Council has the authority to act
preventively, but has rarely done so. The Security Council may well need to be
prepared to be more proactive in the future, taking decisive action earlier.
States that fear the emergence of distant threats have an obligation to bring
these concerns to the Security Council.
The report endorses the emerging norm of a responsibility to protect civilians
from large-scale violence ­ a responsibility that is held, first and foremost, by
national authorities. When a State fails to protect its civilians, the international
community then has a further responsibility to act, through humanitarian
operations, monitoring missions and diplomatic pressure ­ and with force if
necessary, though only as a last resort. And in the case of conflict or the use of
force, this also implies a clear international commitment to rebuilding
shattered societies.
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A more secure world: Our shared responsibility

Deploying military capacities - for peacekeeping as well as peace enforcement -
has proved to be a valuable tool in ending wars and helping to secure States in
their aftermath. But the total global supply of available peacekeepers is running
dangerously low. Just to do an adequate job of keeping the peace in existing
conflicts would require almost doubling the number of peacekeepers around
the world. The developed States have particular responsibilities to do more to
transform their armies into units suitable for deployment to peace operations.
And if we are to meet the challenges ahead, more States will have to place
contingents on stand-by for UN purposes, and keep air transport and other
strategic lift capacities available to assist peace operations.
When wars have ended, post-conflict peacebuilding is vital. The UN has
often devoted too little attention and too few resources to this critical chal-
lenge. Successful peacebuilding requires the deployment of peacekeepers with
the right mandates and sufficient capacity to deter would-be spoilers; funds for
demobilization and disarmament, built into peacekeeping budgets; a new trust
fund to fill critical gaps in rehabilitation and reintegration of combatants, as
well as other early reconstruction tasks; and a focus on building State institutions
and capacity, especially in the rule of law sector. Doing this job successfully
should be a core function of the United Nations.
A UN for the 21st century
To meet these challenges, the UN needs its existing institutions to work better.
This means revitalizing the General Assembly and the Economic and Social
Council, to make sure they play the role intended for them, and restoring
credibility to the Commission on Human Rights.
It also means increasing the credibility and effectiveness of the Security Council
by making its composition better reflect today's realities. The report provides
principles for reform, and two models for how to achieve them ­ one involving
new permanent members with no veto, the other involving new four-year,
renewable seats. It argues that any reforms must be reviewed in 2020.
We also need new institutions to meet evolving challenges. The report recommends
the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission ­ a new mechanism within the
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UN, drawing on the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council,
donors, and national authorities. Working closely with regional organizations
and the international financial institutions, such a commission could fill a
crucial gap by giving the necessary attention to countries emerging from con-
flict. Outside the UN, a forum bringing together the heads of the 20 largest
economies, developed and developing, would help the coherent management
of international monetary, financial, trade and development policy.
Better collaboration with regional organizations is also crucial, and the
report sets out a series of principles that govern a more structured partnership
between them and the UN.
The report recommends strengthening the Secretary-General's critical role in
peace and security. To be more effective, the Secretary-General should be given
substantially more latitude to manage the Secretariat, and be held account-
able. He also needs better support for his mediation role, and new capacities
to develop effective peacebuilding strategy. He currently has one Deputy
Secretary-General; with a second, responsible for peace and security, he would
have the capacity to ensure oversight of both the social, economic and devel-
opment functions of the UN, and its many peace and security functions.
The way forward
The report is the start, not the end, of a process. The year 2005 will be a crucial
opportunity for Member States to discuss and build on the recommendations
in the report, some of which will be considered by a summit of heads of State.
But building a more secure world takes much more than a report or a summit.
It will take resources commensurate with the scale of the challenges ahead;
commitments that are long-term and sustained; and, most of all, it will take
leadership ­ from within States, and between them.
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A more secure world: Our shared responsibility