Description

1990 - An Historic Year

1990 was an historic time, with political events putting the seal of authenticity on the revolutions of 1989 - not simply in Europe but around the world . Democracy consolidated in Europe as the two Germanies completed formal reunification and held their first unified election, while Central and East European countries held democratic elections and moved to modify the Warsaw Pact. Elsewhere, many Third World States fulfilled democratic aspirations in holding elections and ensuring the peaceful transfer of power, often with assistance from the United Nations.

The year also saw major progress in improving strategic relations. The Cold War was brought formally to an end with the signing of the Paris Charter in November, and NATO States relegated their nuclear arsenal to "truly weapons of last resort." As East-West rivalries diminished, attention turned at last to a long neglected issue: the proliferation of weapons of mass-destruction.

The "new era of co-operation" for the 1990's proclaimed by Presidents Bush and Gorbachev in late 1989, however, was quickly put to the test by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August. The measure of the "new world order" in the final decade of the bloody and turbulent twentieth century is whether collective security can finally prevail over regional nuclear alliances as the means to global peace and security. By year's end, the world stood poised at the brink of a new major conflict, and the gains of the preceding year appeared in a new and fragile light.

The new era of co-operation has not yet been applied to global economic relations. The diminution of East-West tension casts in stark relief today the enormous gulf between North and South in levels of economic and social attainment, with disturbing implications for security relationships over the longer-term. The Uruguay Round of the GATT left room for greater attention to the interests of the South and agricultural exporters. The debt burden on developing countries remains of staggering proportions. And the major industrialised countries continue to co-ordinate their macro-economic policies outside the established multilateral institutions.

The North-South divide is equally prominent in efforts to preserve and protect the global environment. Equally threatening to the biosphere as nuclear war yet more entrenched in human life-styles, global warming and ozone depletion pose probably the most serious danger to the planet and the species yet encountered. The past year, however, was largely a preparatory one for environmental activity, leading toward the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development Brazil.

As the world entered the 1990's, citizens and leaders everywhere sensed a quickening pace of change, an intuition that events of momentous import were unfolding or about to unfold. It is in recognition of the pace of global change, and the enormity of its implications for political thought and conduct that Parliamentarians for Global Action formulates its strategy, and pursues its programmes.

PGA's Philosophy and Goals

Parliamentarians for Global Action sustains a network of over 600 members of congress and parliament in 42 national legislatures around the world plus the European Parliament. Its purpose is to link together the representatives of the people in an extended network to promote global security and strengthened global institutions in the 1990's. Members are invited and assisted, in approaching global problems of the modern age, to transcend the national interest of their own country and unite for action in the interests of the planet as a whole. In the world which the organisation strives to create, there is no dichotomy between the interests of the nation and those of the planet. In real politlcal terms and in the age of the sovereign state, a gulf exists. Members aim ttJ close it through concerted action.

PGA is not partisan in domestic political terms or in terms of political ideology. While retaining pride in their own political and cultural heritage, members actively seek the common good in all political cultures, with a view to bringing the total human faculty to bear upon the challenge to our collective survival. Global Action welcomes expression of opinion from all philosophies - conservative, liberal, radical - reflecting the belief that there is wisdom to be found in all, and that each is fallible.

Hon. Warren Allmand, PC, MP
International President

Dr. Kennedy Graham
Secretary-General