We will continue to seek new ways to narrow the divide in each case and promote a durable peace that can provide security and prosperity to all sides. Throughout the entire United Nations system, a more systematic and integrated framework for prevention is being developed. Joined by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Department of Political Affairs is now taking lead in the early- warning and preventive efforts of the United Nations. Guiding and infusing all these efforts is the promotion of human rights, democratization and good governance as the foundations of peace. Preventive deployment, in one particular example, has already had a remarkable effect in the explosive region of the Balkans.
Preventive disarmament is another measure whose importance needs to be recognized and advanced.
The United Nations has disarmed combatants in the context of peacekeeping operations from Nicaragua to Mozambique. In other cases, destroying yesterday's weapons prevents them from being used tomorrow. This is also what the United Nations has been attempting to do in Iraq, where the inspections of the United Nations Special Commission have succeeded in destroying more weapons of mass destruction than did the entire Persian Gulf War. Urgent action is also needed to curtail the flow of conventional weapons. In particular, we must do more to halt the proliferation of small arms with which most wars are fought today.