The Worldwatch Institute says in its State of the World Report 2005 that "poverty, disease and environmental decline are the true axis of evil" that threaten global security more than terrorism. "The global war on terror is diverting the world's attention from these central causes of instability," asserts the Worldwatch Institute in its annual Report on the State of the World launched in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday. "Acts of terror and the dangerous reactions they provoke are symptomatic of underlying sources of global insecurity, including the perilous interplay among poverty, infectious disease, environmental degradation, rising competition over oil and other resources," the report says. It notes that tackling these challenges demands a strategy that emphasizes prevention-focused programmes rather that military might. In a foreword to the State of the World report 2005, the former Soviet Union President and Green Cross International Chairman, Mikhail Gorbachev, calls for a "Global Glasnost - openness, transparency and public dialogue, and a policy of preventive engagement - to meet the challenges of poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and conflict in a sustainable and non-violent way". The president of Worldwatch Institute, Christopher Flavin, also claims in an introductory to the report that the unless the central causes to global insecurity were recognized and responded to "the world runs the risk of being blindsided by the new forces of instability, just as the United States was surprised by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001." --more 1447 Local Time 1147 GMT
