If the Cold War is ending, the paradigm that has framed national security agendas for forty plus years must change. Threats to the environment, instant global communications, access to changing science and technology, and deepening economic interdependence are rapidly eroding national sovereignity and blurring foreign and domestic policy. How the multilateral financial institutions decide to respond to forces for economic reform in Eastern Europe and to advance peace processes underway or imminent in Africa, Asia and Central America, could be as important to the advancement of world order as support for reconstruction and development was for Europe 40 years ago. Multilateral finance and development institutions can ease the transition to a new post bipolar global security regime beneficial to developing countries. They can : 1) prepare briefs on regional and civil conflicts to aid long range planning and assistance for peacekeeping; 2) promote greater regional cooperation in trade, environmental management, communications, and education; 3) integrate the democratizing nations of Eastern Europe into the world economy; and 4) design long range approaches to involve developing countries in international efforts to deal with the degradation of the world's vital atmospheric, marine tropical, water, and biological resources.
