Ensuring peace becomes the norm.

While the demise of totalitarianism might have been a logical and natural conclusion of a whole period in world history, bringing great relief to many nations which regained their independence and identity, it did not make resolution of a number of geopolitical and global problems any easier. The need to deal with them effectively became only more evident. In addition, the new States almost immediately faced a set of unexpected challenges which highlighted their weaknesses and dependence on the world community.

Kazakhstan - having been part of the Russian empire and, most recently, of the former Soviet Union for two and a half centuries - declared independence in 1991, thus occupying its proper place in the world. It became a Member State of the United Nations in 1992. President Narsultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, in addressing the General Assembly in the fall of that year, elaborated on the principles of his country's foreign policy. He also put forward a number of initiatives relating to problems of the post-confrontational era, such as the convening of a conference on interaction and confidence-building measures in Asia; creation of a Euro-Asian union; peaceful settlement of conflicts and disputes in the post-Soviet space; Kazakhstan's refusal to inherit part of the nuclear arsenal of the former Soviet Union; and the ratification of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Those lofty pronouncements, however, did not come from a wealthy and affluent nation attempting to bring up the rest of the world to its high level of development and security. Quite on the contrary, we needed help from the international community in the attainment of even the declared goals.

There was also another aspect that we realized only afterwards. In those earlier days, the newly independent States, including Kazakhstan, believed that their major challenge was to rapidly rid themselves of everything associated with the Soviet system. Nobody wanted to think of the consequences. Hastily, and perhaps without second thought, we dismantled all that we thought was part of the totalitarianism altogether, not even trying to transform the already existing social infrastructure into a new, democratic one.

As it turned out, it was a costly haste in the name of civilization. It led to the loss of a tangible part of national wealth, a base of productive forces. As a result, the majority of post-Soviet countries, with few exceptions, was taken many decades back in a number of fields.

We now have to rethink the situation we are in. The time has come to take steps towards a comprehensive and concrete solution of more complex problems so that in the future we could be grateful to the world community and, hopefully, as a developed nation be in a position to give something back which would not be confined only to natural resources.

The world now is a safer place to live in than a decade ago, in spite of violent ethnic conflicts.

However, for peace to become a norm for everybody, it is necessary to use the funds saved from cuts in defence budgets for the rebirth, revival and development of poorer countries. The world community should review its priorities and determine a strategy in order to deal effectively with the new challenges. The United Nations has all that is needed to be a focal point in this regard. It already does a lot in terms of initiating various activities and establishing organizational and legal conditions for the efficient use of the world community's potential. But we have to accomplish more and on a considerably higher qualitative level.

Our world of poverty and luxury, with all its contradictions, is approaching a new millennium. Enormous wealth, both material and spiritual, has not made us happier, since wanton thirst for profit - the principal cause of all calamities - continues to be the basic foundation of earthly relations. From ancient times, the humankind has had to accumulate wealth in any form in order to survive, using all available means. But this natural urge has long become a manic obsession and lost its original meaning.

Nowadays we stand at a crossroads: humanity will either continue a spontaneous evolutionary movement into the unknown, with all its side-effects and unpleasant surprises, such as conflicts, the arms race and the fight for spheres of influence, or it will make a historical turn and strive to put into reality the everlasting dream of the people, which is the creation of a truly just and harmonious global society.

In this regard, it is necessary that every country undertake, starting from the grass-roots level, a careful assessment of history and existing reality, and clearly define the basic principles and goals of its internal and external policies, with particular emphasis on the problems of the environment. These principles or proposals - made up as a package of draft laws regulating international relations in ecological, social, economic, political and military spheres on a humane basis - should then be submitted to the United Nations for consideration and review. Subsequently, they should be incorporated in and adopted as a world policy standard of ethical behaviour, obligatory for every country.

To these ends and as a starting point, a global forum entitled "Millenniums: Results and Prospects" could be convened under the auspices of the United Nations. Such a forum would help us outline and agree upon a commonly acceptable approach and guiding principles in dealing with today's problems. The United Nations, which has gone through a stage of confrontation between different socio-political systems, would be gradually transforming itself into a coordinator of civilized human relations amongst peoples and, finally, into the most efficient chief headquarters of mankind.

Mr. Sultanmurat is the President of the International Initiative Committee of "World Transformation", a nongovernmental organization in Kazakhstan. He contributed this article at the request of the UN Chronicle.