Unfortunately, he said, we have often been unable to intervene until simmering conflicts develop into deadly ones. The reluctance of one or more of the parties in a conflict to accept external intervention of any kind. The lack of integrated conflict-prevention strategies within the UN system and the international community. Prevention should be seen not as infringing upon sovereignty, Annan said, but an activity whose goal is to restore legitimate authority and global order. The operational prevention strategy of the United Nations involves four fundamental activities.
Preventive disarmament is one component of the prevention strategy.
By getting combatants to disarm, the UN can not only reduce the potential for violence, but the act of disarmament may also stimulate progress in resolving the issues that led to the conflict. This is also part of a broader effort by the United Nations to curtail the flow of conventional weapons. He stressed that the efforts of the UN since the Gulf War had destroyed more weapons of mass destruction than were eliminated during the course of that war. But all of these strategies, both operational and structural, will succeed only if the root causes of conflict are addressed, Annan told the Autry Court audience. These causes are often economic and social.