The most recent Defense Intelligence Agency threat report presented to the U.S. Senate highlighted two groups of threats that, at a conceptual level, confront not only the United States, but are endemic to global security. The first group can be understood as a traditional or linear threat calculus that has devolved from the binary opposition and threat of nuclear catastrophe –as defined by the Cold War as a set of threats attached to regional conflicts or even direct tensions or conflicts between nations. Arguably, the most pressing regional issue confronting the international community today can be seen as the proliferation of nuclear weapons, accompanied by the weaponization of Iran, as well as the persistence of civil war and internal conflict within the Middle East and central Africa. The second conceptual group can be understood as non-linear or asymmetrical threats, typified by the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the outbreak of SARS, which require different forms of governmental preparedness and response. Despite the clear differences between these two forms of threat, both require active security and defensive postures that are engaged internationally at the diplomatic and militaristic level. How, then, can nations manage these two priorities? Where can resources be found to satisfy such burdens? How can systems of cooperation and global governance be established in order to adequately share resources and face threats? How can major threats, such as nuclear proliferation, be effectively curtailed in order to phase out the notion of a true existential threat?
Bio
David A. Andelman
David A. Andelman became Editor of World Policy Journal in June 2008. Previously he served as Executive Editor of Forbes.com, the world's largest business and financial website. Earlier, he was a domestic and foreign correspondent for The New York Times in various posts in New York and Washington, as Southeast Asia bureau chief, based in Bangkok, then East European bureau chief, based in Belgrade.
He then moved to CBS News where he served for seven years as Paris correspondent, traveling through and reporting from nearly 60 countries. There followed service as a Washington correspondent for CNBC, news editor of Bloomberg News and Business Editor of the New York Daily News.
He is the author of three books, "The Peacemakers", published by Harper & Row, and "The Fourth World War", published by William Morrow, which he co-authored with the Count de Marenches, long-time head of French intelligence. His third book, "A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today” was published in November 2007 by John Wiley & Sons.
Mr. Andelman has written for such publications as Harpers, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Harvard Club of New York, The Grolier Club and the Overseas Press Club.
Angela Kane
Ms. Angela Kane of Germany assumed the position of High Representative for Disarmament Affairs in March 2012. She provides the Secretary-General with advice and support on all arms control, non-proliferation and related security matters and is responsible for the activities of the Office for Disarmament Affairs.
Ms. Kane has had a long and distinguished career in the United Nations. In addition to substantive assignments in political affairs, peacekeeping and disarmament, she has held various managerial functions, including with financial and policy-setting responsibility. She served as Under-Secretary-General for Management from 2008-2012, overseeing human resources, financial management, procurement and support services and the renovation of the United Nations New York Headquarters campus.
From 2005 to 2008, Ms. Kane served as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, a core function related to the prevention and resolution of conflicts. Her geographic responsibilities included all regions except Africa. Previously, she had served as the Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management.
Her field experience includes Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), a special assignment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and postings in Indonesia and Thailand.
Ms. Kane also held the positions of Director in the Department of Political Affairs and Director in the Department of Public Information. She served as Principal Political Officer with former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and worked with the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central American Peace Process. Ms. Kane worked on disarmament issues for several years and was responsible for the activities of the World Disarmament Campaign.
Ms. Kane was educated at the University of München, Bryn Mawr College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is married.
Patricia O'Brien
Patricia O’ Brien was appointed the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel in August 2008. She oversees the Office of Legal Affairs, the overall objectives of which are to provide a unified central legal service for the United Nations. The Office of Legal Affairs, which is based at the UN Headquarters in New York, employs approximately 200 staff of more than 60 different nationalities.
Ms. O’Brien has extensive experience of legal and international affairs. Prior to her appointment she held a number of senior legal positions in and out of Ireland. Immediately before taking up her position at the UN she served for five years as Legal Adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland where she advised on legal issues arising in Irish foreign policy, in particular public international law, human rights law and European Union law. She also served as a Senior Legal Adviser to the Attorney General of Ireland and as Legal Counsellor at the Irish Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels.
Earlier in her career Ms. O’Brien practiced law at the Irish Bar (1979-1988) and for one year at the Bar of British Columbia, Canada. Between 1989 and 1992 she held academic positions at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Ms. O’Brien earned a Bachelor of Arts (Mod) in legal science in 1978 and a Master of Arts in 1987 from Trinity College, Dublin; a Barrister-at-Law (BL) from Kings Inns, Dublin, in 1978 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1990. She is a member of the Irish Bar (1978) and of the Bar of England and Wales (1986). She is a Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, Vice-President of the Dublin University Law Society, and an Honorary Bencher of the Kings Inns, Dublin, and a Master of the Bench of the Middle Temple, London.
Ms. O’Brien has three children.
Ambassador Tibor Toth
Since 2005, Ambassador Tibor Tóth is the executive head of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), an intergovernmental organization of 182 Member States. Tóth has 16 years of experience in nuclear test ban matters. As CTBTO Executive Secretary, he manages a staff of 300 and an annual budget of USD 120 million. CTBTO operates a global system of some 500 monitoring and communication facilities, representing a 1 billion dollar investment. The CTBTO was instrumental in detecting the 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapon tests by the DPRK and contributed to the early warning of the tsunami generated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and to the disaster management of the ensuing Fukushima nuclear accident.
Ambassador Tóth has an aggregated 40 years of leadership experience in nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament. Tóth served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva (1990–1993 and 2003–2005), Vienna (1997–2001) and The Hague (1993). He represented Hungary at the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the Preparatory Commission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the CTBTO. Since 1986, Tóth has participated in all sessions of the UN General Assembly and its First Committee in New York. Tóth served as Deputy State Secretary of Defense responsible for international affairs (1994–1996).
Ambassador Tóth has accumulated some 15 years of experience in biological weapons prohibition and another 15 years in chemical weapons disarmament. As Chair, Tóth led the all the negotiations on an implementation regime for the Biological Weapon Convention (1991–2003). Tóth launched the on-going intersessional process on the implementation of the BWC and put in place its support secretariat. He negotiated the provisions on the Executive Council of the Chemical Weapons Convention and triggered in 1996 the entry into force of the CWC through Hungary’s decisive ratification.
For half a decade (1986-1990) he was also in charge of Hungary’s conventional force reduction and confidence building measures policy, personally contributing to the concept of national limits reflected in the CFE Treaty. As Deputy State Secretary he put in place enhanced confidence and security building measures with Romania and Slovakia. Tóth initiated in 1989 the joint organization by Canada and Hungary of the Open Skies Conference, leading later to the Open Skies Treaty and the two countries becoming its depositaries. Tóth set in motion Hungary’s voluntary renunciation of anti-personnel landmines in 1997, the second unilateral ban legislation worldwide prior to the Ottawa Convention.
Stefaan G. Verhulst
Mr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is the Chief of Research at the Markle Foundation and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Global Communications Studies, Annenberg School for Communications, University of Pennsylvania. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, and Senior Research Fellow for the Center for Media and Communications Studies, Central European University in Budapest. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and Co-Director, with Professor Monroe Price, of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at Oxford University, as well as Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio Legal Studies. In that capacity, he was appointed the Socio-Legal Research Fellow at Wolfson College at Oxford.
Mr. Verhulst was the UNESCO Chairholder in Communications Law and Policy for the UK, a former lecturer on Communications Law and Policy issues in Belgium, and Founder and Co-Director of the International Media and Info-Comms Policy and Law Studies (IMPS) at the School of Law, University of Glasgow. Verhulst has served as consultant to various international and national organizations, including the Council of Europe, European Commission, UNESCO, World Bank, UNDP, USAID, and DFID.
He is the author and co-author of several books and numerous articles and chapters. He is the Founder and Editor of the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy, and the Communications Law in Transition Newsletter.
Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, believes that the Non-Proliferation Treaty can be effective only if countries sign it and are pressured to verify their compliance.
