Strategies for Preventing Major Conflicts at Global Level

Abstract

The vast majority of the world is living in peace and trans-border wars are increasingly rare. Yet
half the world has the potential to become violently unstable due to a combination of growing inequality,
increasing unemployment, rising prices of food, falling water tables, abuses of elite power, outdated
institutional structures, organized crime, terrorist groups, limited access to natural and social resources, and
inadequate legal and governance systems. Globalization, migration, geopolitical shifts, changing nature of
power, and increasing access of individuals to natural, technological and social resources, have raised the
world’s vulnerabilities to new levels and are changing the security paradigm. The diplomatic, foreign policy,
military, and legal systems to address the new asymmetrical threats have yet to be established. The UN,
NATO, and other security structures are based on the nation-state as the primary decision-making entity,
which has become increasingly inadequate.