Change and Adaptation: Challenges in the Western Hemisphere and Beyond

The world we live in today is defined by rapid and constant change. Advances in communication, transportation, and trade have intensified global transnational exchange, and join all nations in the Western Hemisphere and the world with fates more tightly interlocked than ever. While some modern technologies have greatly benefitted the people of most every nation, other changes have been more problematic and present us with unprecedented challenges in the 21st Century. In such an environment security and stability must rely on concerted action and cooperation between nations across the hemisphere, and throughout the world.Recent progress in technology has greatly intensified global interaction and continues to factor decisively in the development of countless millions of people, from Africa and Asia to the West and Latin America. As a result, many regions of the world are moving ahead at faster rates of growth and with dramatic increases in per capita income.This is even more significant as we know that strong and steady economic growth can support a virtuous cycle of development, by increasing government revenue necessary for investment in health, education, and infrastructure. Economic prosperity has also been conclusively linked to reductions in societal violence and the likelihood of civil conflict. In the virtuous cycle that economic growth can create, the increased revenue available for health and education, roads and power-grids, steadily creates greater and greater opportunity for people and enables them to help themselves grow and prosper and contribute to the economic growth of their neighborhoods, towns, and countries. We need to bring this opportunity to every citizen and family around the world.This is why our global institutions need to redouble their efforts to help disenfranchised people gain access to credit, finance, and financial markets. Bringing such access is the most effective strategy for poverty-reduction and the prevention of violence and armed conflict in the world, and specifically in Latin America today.The Western Hemisphere has been mercifully free of major warfare between states for several generations. Yet neither stability nor security can be taken for granted. Hostile blocs have emerged within the hemisphere embracing competing and conflicting worldviews and making the specter of interstate conflict more imaginable than in generations. Moreover, crime has become the most commonly identified problem and source of human insecurity in the hemisphere. As we promote economic opportunity, we must recognize that accelerated change, such as we have experienced in recent decades, can also be traumatic and destabilizing.The geopolitical changes experienced in the post-World War II period, and particularly over the last 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, have been enormous and sweeping. Armed conflict between great powers has largely been supplanted worldwide by a proliferation of smaller regional conflicts, driven by ethnic, religious, identity, and interest group concerns. Many of these civil conflicts are fueled by complex webs of illicit activity and transnational criminal finance. This new reality demands a departure from Cold War thinking and strategies, and requires that we continuously struggle to improve our understanding of emerging and evolving security challenges in today's rapidly changing world.We must tirelessly explore new solutions to these new security challenges. For example, in an era characterized by fewer interstate conflicts, it is time we consider dramatically restructuring some of our global intergovernmental institutions - such as the United Nations - so that they can be more responsive and effective in conflict negotiation and peace building in smaller, regional conflicts, or even local conflicts. In order to achieve this more dynamic and effective global posture, it is also essential that the UN bureaucracy be significantly overhauled and reduced. …