PEACE & SECURITY

To help nations effectively establish the conditions and capacity for achieving peace, security, and stability; and for responding effectively against arising threats to national or international security and stability.

Office of the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance
Washington, DC

Peace: Peace is a state of harmony, the absence of hostility. This term is applied to describe a cessation of violent international conflict; in this international context, peace is the opposite of war. Peace can also describe a relationship between any people characterized by respect, justice, and goodwill.

Security: is the condition of being protected against danger or loss. In the general sense, security is a concept similar to safety. The nuance between the two is an added emphasis on being protected from dangers that originate from outside. Individuals or actions that encroach upon the condition of protection are responsible for the breach of security.

The word "security" in general usage is synonymous with "safety," but as a technical term "security" means that something not only is secure but that it has been secured. In telecommunications, the term security has the following meanings:

• A condition that results from the establishment and maintenance of protective measures that ensure a state of inviolability from hostile acts or influences.

• With respect to classified matter, the condition that prevents unauthorized persons from having access to official information that is safeguarded in the interests of national security.

• Measures taken by a military unit, an activity or installation to protect itself against all acts designed to, or which may, impair its effectiveness.

Civilian Military Coordination: Civil-military coordination has become a critical success factor in complex peace operations. The success of modern peace operations depend on the effective coordination and synchronization of various functions, organizations and disciplines – providing a safe & secure environment, negotiating a comprehensive political settlement, embarking on a political transformation process including perhaps a new constitution and establishing new political institutions, organising an election, the disarmament demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, re-establishing the state infrastructure, re-establishing essential services, security sector reform, justice sector reform, reconstruction of physical infrastructure, etc. – to ensure that together these various components systematically address and build positive momentum across the whole spectrum of root causes and aggravating factors that are driving the conflict.