Opening Plenary

Insecurity and Development - Combining Global Peace Keeping with Achieving the Millenium Development Goals: A Possible Mission for Europe?

Chair

Louk de la Rive Box, EADI President and Rector of the Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands

Speakers:

Heidemarie Wiezorek-Zeul, Minister for Development Co-operation , Germany
Surin Pitsuwan, former Thai Foreign Minister and commissioner of the UN Advisory Board on Human Security
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister, Nigeria*

The opening plenary will introduce the two clusters of themes to be discussed at the EADI conference. One is the link between new threats to regional and global security - terrorism, weapons of mass destruction in the hands of maverick leaders of failing states, civil wars - and development co-operation. How should development policy and armed forces, police and intelligence organisations co-operate in effective conflict prevention und peace building? The other cluster is defined by the wider concept of human security as propagated by the UN Commission on Human Security. Poor people in developing countries feel other threats to their security (HIV, natural disasters, corrupt and oppressive governments) than affluent people in developed countries. By focusing on the Millennium Development Goals, development co-operation will improve human security of the poor in developing countries. What are the links between the two clusters of security threats and challenges for development co-operation? Will the containment of terrorism and civil wars improve the perspectives for economic development, and will economic development reduce the incentives for violent actions by self-legitimised advocates of the poor in developing countries? Finally, should Europe play a specific role in global peace keeping and development co-operation, and will there be a more effective division of labour with the United States?

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10th General Conference