Broadening the concept of international security, Security Council leaders said September 7 that insuring peace goes beyond providing peacekeeping forces to dealing with the poverty, disease, lack of education, and environmental problems that are at the root of today's conflicts.
War kills massively, crosses borders, destabilizes whole regions.
Until we confront the iron link between deprivation, disease and war, we will never be able to create the peace that the founders of the United Nations dreamed of. Nevertheless, Clinton said that the United Nations must be more equipped to properly train and equip peacekeepers, deploy those troops rapidly, and project credible force. It should be the goal of our assistance for West African forces that are now going into Sierra Leone. The Council is the primary United Nations body responsible for maintaining peace and security and the only one whose decisions are mandatory for member states. The Council said that the United Nations must develop more comprehensive and integrated strategies to address the root causes of conflicts, including their economic and social dimensions.