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The conference described in this report convened to provide a forum for exchanging ideas and opinions on the role of the United Nations in global energy management. The conference was one in a series of international meetings (14 have been held to date) to consider how to increase the effectiveness of the United Nations during the 1980s. The objective of the report was to stimulate study, research, and education with respect to the role of the United Nations in achieving international peace and prosperity. Participants included diplomats, scholars, and energy experts from 17 nations. Conference deliberations focused on petroleum resources, price, and supply; electrical power generation; new and renewable sources of energy; conservation; national energy planning; and the role of the United Nations with regard to energy management. While there were differences in how participants viewed the nature and seriousness of the energy situation, there was broad consensus on many issues including that the era of cheap energy has ended, people must make a transition from petroleum to renewable energy sources, energy conservation is essential, major capital investment is essential to deal with the energy problem and to develop energy sources, and the role of the UN system should be to assist national governments and private sector organizations in planning for and implementing solutions to the energy problem. (DB)

Knowing that national leaders frequently make decisions based on perceptions of their country's interests, the 1984 conference focused on national interests in turning to the United Nations. Through the use of case studies, participants examined the performance of the UN system and the consequences of member nations ignoring their obligation to resolve disputes peacefully. Lessons were drawn from the study of actual conflicts: chiefly, that the United Nations can be used more effectively to prevent conflict than to rectify the damage done after hostilities have broken out (although through peacekeeping efforts, it can play a role then too). Participants also identified some procedures, which member nations should support because they are in their best interests, to strengthen the United Nations. After taking this realistic look at the United Nations, the participants reached the same conclusions as their counterparts at previous conferences: the United Nations is indispensable and offers the best chance to maintain peace and security. Yet, the benefits of using and strengthening the United Nations will be realized only to the extent that nations develop the will to do so. (Author)

The conference considered a broad range of issues regarding nuclear nonproliferation and U.S. policy objectives for the nonproliferation regime both in the near term and long term. Major areas receiving particular attention were developments affecting the context of the nonproliferation debate; the present status of the nonproliferation regime; threats to the future of nonproliferation; the 1985 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference; and U.S. objectives regarding the implementation of full-scope safeguards, enhancing the International Atomic Energy Agency, strengthening the NPT, and broadening the nonproliferation regime. Overriding these issues was agreement that to insure the future stability of nonproliferation, measures must be taken to halt and reverse the vertical proliferation of the superpowers' nuclear arms race. The participants shared the goal of supporting and strengthening the nonproliferation regime and urged the United States to work toward this end. (Author)

This is a report of a conference held to discuss maintaining peace in outer space. Nineteen space specialists participated in the conference. Topics discussed were recent technological developments, international cooperation for peaceful uses of outer space, prevention of weapons in space, and the future role of the United Nations. The report's conclusion states that the space age is moving away from the era of spectaculars. Although manned space flights still occur, the more routine applications of space technology to earth systems have a more direct effect on our lives. Similarly, the space age has moved from an era of seemingly insurmountable technical problems to a time when human, economic, and political issues may pose the greatest impediments to space progress. Chief among these is the lack of national will to assign high priority to managing space matters. Recommendations of the conference include the following: (1) Governments need to devote more resources to peaceful uses of space; (2) All nations need to assess their national needs and priorities regarding space; (3) Further study needs to be conducted of ways to apply advanced technology to basic needs; (4) United States-Soviet talks on antisatellite and other space weapons should be resumed; (5) Attempts should be made to reduce institutional rivalries, a problem that exists throughout the United Nations; and (6) Funding for the UN Secretariat's Outer Space Affairs Division (OSAD) should be increased. (RM)

The Stanley Foundation annually assembles a panel of experts from the public and private sectors to assess specific foreign policy issues and to recommend future direction. The participants in the round-table discussion summarized in this report agreed that the Soviets are moving from a Marxist-Leninist version of socialism to a broader version, and that Gorbachev appears to be ready to bring in a new form of Soviet socialism, in which both the selfless and self-interested urges of people are taken into account. The minimum requirements for this change were identified and the discussion that followed is reported under the following headings: (1) economic aspects of property rights; (2) property relations in a reformed Soviet economy; (3) legal difficulties relating to reform efforts; (4) popular attitudes and related barriers to reform; and (5) policy implications. There exists no model of transition on how to move from a centrally planned economy to a system with aspects of a free market economy. It was agreed that the United States can assist with advice on the institutions of a market economy, on technical expertise, with educational exchanges, and through increased economic relations with the Soviets. The report also includes the keynote address by Richard H. Stanley, in which the conferees were asked to consider two underlying issues in their deliberations: (1) the changing national power relationships, including the relative erosion of U.S. power; and (2) the profound global systemic changes that are rendering old policy assumptions obsolete. (NL)

This report summarizes the roundtable discussion of 19 China experts at a conference on the development of U.S. policy convened four months after the democracy demonstrations that took place in China in spring, 1989. The group's discussion highlighted five major areas of uncertainty over China's course in the short-term to intermediate future: (1) the extent of changes in Chinese life caused by the abrupt political changes of May and June 1989, and the eroding economy; (2) understanding key relationships within the Chinese military and between the military and civilian leaders; (3) how much change has occurred in the balance of power between the center in Beijing and the provinces; (4) the degree of consolidation of power by China's current leaders; and (5) the effect of stricter central economic policies on the long-term performance of the economy. The keynote address by Richard H. Stanley, which is given in full, asked the conferees to consider two underlying issues in their deliberations: (1) the changing national power relationships including the relative erosion of U.S. power; and (2) the profound global systemic changes that are rendering old policy assumptions obsolete. (NL)

The world's political structure and many economic practices are out of harmony with nature. This disharmony threatens environmentally sustainable growth and human survival. United Nations (UN) conference participants discussed the degree of political acceptance of concepts such as environmental security and sustainable development. Their reading of the political situation was then used to analyze possible international responses to environmental degradation and natural resource depletion. Some themes which arose in discussing the international response were: (1) The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has done a generally good job in carrying out its limited mission with limited resources. (2) There is a need for policy coordination among nations, across international institutions, and bridging sectors such as economics, population, and environment. An intergovernmental body that meets at a high level is needed to cut through bureaucratic rivalries and to put political muscle behind initiatives. (3) A major institutional deficiency of the international system involves the failure to adequately measure and internalize all sorts of production in many economic enterprises. (4) The forthcoming 1992 UN conference on the environment should be a UN meeting, not a UNEP meeting, and there should be high-level participation from nations. If the momentum for change in international environmental efforts can be sustained, there is hope for near-term agreement on measures to curb planet-threatening abuses of the environment. A list of conference participants and the conference opening speech are included. (Author/JB)

The conference reported on in this document focused on the profound changes taking place in the world, changes characterized by their international nature and requiring multinational cooperation. The security of national borders continues to be a concern, but internal threats to governments are the more common phenomenon. The combination of poverty and mushrooming population in the developing nations presents a new threat to security in the North. Other security threats are drug-trafficking, terrorism, and increased worldwide conventional arsenals. New threats to the environment have caught the attention of world leaders. The transformation in global economic activity was targeted as an important change that has yet to be adequately addressed. Directly related to the economic transformation is the technological revolution. The United Nations (UN) has traditionally been handed many of the world's most insoluble problems. Given the recent successes of the UN in defusing regional conflicts and a generally more positive world attitude toward the institution, the outlook for the UN to effectively handle traditional security concerns has improved somewhat. The prospects are not as bright for dealing with new security issues. The problems emerging cannot be contained within national boundaries and are not prone to control either intra- or inter-nationally by governments. World leaders must recognize that the world is entering a new era and develop an agenda that ensures that peaceful change is possible. A list of the participants and the conference-opening address are included. (Author/JB)

The number and depth of global problems is increasing and the capacity of the United Nations (UN) to deal with them is diminishing. The international effort to deal with environmental problems is fragmented and underfunded. The UN has no mechanism for the routine identification and analysis of problems and the proposal of solutions to them. In the peace and security area, the changed objects of war from those that prevailed at the end of World War II confound the UN approach. Most wars that are fought today try to bring down a regime or force it to change its policies rather than seize land from the country. In sum, the participants found the UN wanting as an effective multilateral institution for the management of a growing list of world problems. There is a definite need to address the problem of making the UN a more effective instrument for bringing about a better world. A list of conference participants and the conference-opening address are included. (Author/JB)

Science and technology are helping solve problems around the world as well as creating new problems. The concentration of scientific and technological capabilities in a few countries exacerbates these new problems. The United Nations tried to address this disparity through a program on science and technology for development adopted in Vienna in 1979. That program has faltered. Participants at the Nations Issues Conference asked why, discussed the appropriate role for the United Nations, and identified new challenges. It was agreed that science, technology, and production interact in ways that often are unpredictable. Development was discussed as a society's ability to meet the needs of its people. The term endogenous capacity is used to describe a nation's ability to make informed choices and decisions about how to apply science and technology to economic and social development. Many felt the Vienna Programme of Action had failed because it was political in nature, it did not have sufficient input from the scientific and technological community, and it was unable to build its own constituency among member-nation governments, and therefore it lacked sufficient funds. Conference participants agreed there is no need for a grand scheme for promoting development. The role for the United Nations should be restricted to those areas where a universal, multilateral governmental agency is needed. There is also a role for multilateral organizations to facilitate coordination among efforts to apply science and technology to development. (JB)

Twenty-eight conference participants, consisting of diplomats, government officials, and scholars, strongly urged the General Assembly to begin preparations for a 1985 meeting of the heads of state of the United Nation's 157 member nations. The purpose of the summit would be to provide an opportunity for the members to reaffirm their support of the world organization and to examine how the United Nations might be made to function more effectively in matters of peace and security. The conference participants also called for a strengthening of the role of the Secretary-General in conflict intervention, encouraging him to be more assertive in bringing threats to peace to the attention of the Security Council. Conference attendees recommended that many of the less important duties of the Secretary-General be delegated to others to free him to focus on international conflicts and pacific settlements. Since many nations are circumventing or ignoring the Security Council altogether, thereby weakening its power to intercede in disputes and conflicts, participants suggested that members of the UN should use the Council more frequently. The consensus of the participants was that the greater good is served when member nations bring their disputes before the Security Council for assistance in peaceful resolution, instead of seeking solutions through the use of armed forces. (LH)