UN General Assembly
1999

and security. Yet this is only one of the many purposes of our Organization; to achieving international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all is no less an important goal in our Charter. Invariably, the traditional security paradigm predominates in the discussions and ensuing actions regarding international peace and security. A decade after the end of the cold war, global and regional organizations tend to focus their efforts primarily on traditional security concepts and related tools for solving security problems. In South-East Asia, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF), which deals with some aspects of security issues in this traditional sense. But the traditional concepts of security are woefully inadequate to meet the new challenges faced by mankind. The very narrow scope of its definition serves as an intellectual strait-jacket which limits our ability to conceptualize and respond to new threats of our time. This fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly is