resulting strains may very well 1.mdermine the current trend t9wards global peace and har110ny. A detente devoid of economic content is unlikely to endure. Meanwhile, the world economy is undergoing radical changes. Rapid developments in science and technology have transformed the patterns of production, consumption and trade. The revolution in communication and information technologies has led to an unprecedented integration of the world economy and of capital and other markets. These developments, along with the growing understanding of environmental threats to the planet, have heightened the awareness of the interdependence of nations and the interrelationship of issues. The unprecedented dimensions and the pace of the technological : and financial changes have added to the complexity of the global economic probl~rns and also led to the emergence of new problems, which can be solved only by nations acting together and not by each of them going its cwn way. The limitations of a unilateral or ad hoe approach have become all too obvious. ~t) ;,,;·· '' '' I I JB/18 A/S-18/PV.2 81 (Mr. Gujral, India) The time has now come to take stock of those developments and assess their implications for the growth and development of developing countries. Global peace and security have to be nurtured and underpinned by parallel and complementary efforts to reduce eoonomic disparities and inequities. Durable peace cannot be built on the shifting sands of eoonomic uncertainties. It is in that context that we see the main significance of this special session. The last decade has seen one of the worst anomalies of our time -the net transfer of resources from developing to developed countries. An increasing number of developing countries have fallen into the debt trap. This period has also seen the growing proliferation of protectionist measures, many of which have been 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the impact of rapid technological and economic changes on the global economy and the need for international cooperation to address the resulting problems. It also highlights the issue of economic disparities and inequities between developed and developing countries, and the importance of reducing these disparities for achieving durable peace.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade