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100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International

considerable extent, determines the shaping of the future. These notions also
indicate the principal course of action to be taken by the international
community to influence the process of change and to direct it into
evolutionary, non-violent and democratic channels. Today, I would like to
share with you some of my ideas on these matters. However, before doing so, I
would like to make some introductory remarks.

2. Perhaps the most important feature of social sciences in general and
political philosophy in particular is the way its vocabulary is formed. In natural
sciences, we can have precise and reliable definitions. From the time of
Euclidus, the term "an oval" or "a square" always had the same meaning. In the
social sphere the situation is entirely different. Social and political phenomena
are fluid, ever-changing, without well-defined boundaries or permanent
attributes. It is extremely difficult to define a social phenomenon - and even
when this is done, you can never be sure that it has not changed to such an
extent that your definition is no longer valid. From this point of view, it is
always useful to re-evaluate some familiar notions from time to time and see
how they correspond to the reality.

- I -

3. Let's start with the notion of security. For decades, the term "security"
has dominated the writings of political scholars. In the Cold War period, on a
national level, security was associated with the protection of national borders
and non-intervention in domestic affairs. It was assumed that a State could pre-
serve its security by maintaining a certain level of armament and military
preparedness to deal with any possible aggression. National security considera-
tions predominated international security interests. The understanding of
national security in military terms was projected into the approach to interna-
tional, and primarily global, security. In practice, national and international
security were usually at odds with each other.

4. In the contemporary world, this traditional understanding of security
does not work any more. Today, security has reached a new dimension. It is no
longer possible to ensure the security of one State at the expense of the others.
The world has become too interdependent and a crisis or a conflict situation in
one region immediately triggers a reaction all over the globe. In particular, an
ethnic conflict seems to be a rather contagious international decease. It easily
provokes a chain reaction of similar tensions. As a result, today national
security considerations are subordinate to international security interests and

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