What is peace to you? Is peace to be found in the absence of strife, in the absolution of torment, or even in the stability of one’s soul? Can peace, if it were a concept, a state, or an ideal awaiting realisation, be fulfilled in today’s world, in our world?

The term “Post-Crisis” does not imply that we are presently free of the problems and challenges facing the world nor does it mean that the world economy has recovered. Its use in this seminar is merely to set the stage for a new dispensation on what needs to be done in the aftermath of the recent severe world economic down-turn.

Eliminating nuclear threats is a matter of necessity, not choice. The world’s 23,000 nuclear weapons – many still deployed on high alert – can destroy life on this planet many times over. That the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not so far been repeated owes far more to luck than to good policy management.