SIPRI Yearbook 2002

‘The 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States marked a watershed in the international security process. . . . The qualitatively novel phenomena and changes in the world call for a new, unconventional approach. Since the risks are global, the responses should be global as well. This, in turn, requires a system that fosters and generates cooperation rather than rivalry among powers and other actors. The world is interdependent. Positive and negative processes and phenomena are of a global character. The greatest challenge of the contemporary world is not so much the rivalry over power or territorial expansion—motives that dominated in the colonial era - as it is dealing with the new threats of global terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and organized crime, on the one hand, and local and regional conflicts on the other. . . .

The adaptation of the cooperative security system to new tasks calls for the elaboration of new principles and norms adequate to the requirements of the contemporary world. International structures, institutions and organizations are also being reassessed, since they have so far not been able to address effectively the needs and challenges of global processes and the accelerated modernization in the world today’

From the Introduction by SIPRI Director Adam Daniel Rotfeld