Next week, Sweden’s defense, security and development elites will gather in Sälen to discuss some of the most pressing challenges facing the international community today.

Three emerging trends that define relations between and within states are likely to permeate the deliberations. They are: (1) intensified focus on the nexus between security and development and how to achieve both simultaneously in a cost-effective manner; (2) increased attention to advanced technology as an antidote to 21st century challenges; and (3) greater emphasis on “whole of society” solutions to global problems, meaning that societies’ full resources, public and private sectors, as well as civil society, are utilized to achieve national and international security and economic development objectives, as well as create financial profit.

You will be hard-pressed to find someone among this distinguished group of policymakers, experts and journalists that reject Kofi Annan’s axiom that “you cannot have development without security and you cannot have security without development.”

However, widespread practical implementation of this powerful logic is still largely an unfulfilled promise. Insufficient cooperation and coordination of resources—financial, technical and human—between military, security and development communities worldwide remains a significant obstacle to change.

Sweden has overcome barriers to progress before on the international arena and can again take a leadership role.

It is with this background that our two organizations, the Stimson Center, a Washington-based international security think tank, and the Africa Peace Forum, a Nairobi-based peace and conflict research institute, have partnered to challenge conventional wisdom. In the coming months and years we will facilitate a pilot program that bridges the security/development divide in East Africa that the global community can look to as a sustainable capacity-building success story.

A cornerstone of any development strategy in East Africa should include a commitment to shoring up capacities at the borders. This is why we have decided to focus on border security capacity-building in East Africa. Porous and weak infrastructure and institutions at national boundaries are the common denominator for an array of security challenges that directly impact the prospects of economic and social progress on the African continent: proliferation and small arms trafficking, growth in organized crime and terrorist activity.

For the local population, “security” problems, such as the unchecked flow of small arms across the continent, are equally development challenges because they fuel conflict and ruin the possibilities for a healthy business climate, threaten a functioning labor market and educational system, diminish revenues from tourism, and imperil foreign direct investments—all of which are crucial for social and development progress.

Indeed, armed violence and civil wars alone, made possible by illicit flows of arms, accounts for a 15 percent reduction in the gross domestic product annually in Africa.

Moreover, border insecurity is not only a challenge for African countries. In contrast to the Cold War, the greatest threat today to international peace, security and development is not principally the strength of our adversaries, but the weakness of frail and ill-equipped nations that are unable to prevent the nefarious activities of non-state actors on their territories and/or rogue states—both of whom threaten us with terrorism, WMD proliferation and disrupting the global supply chain of goods, services, and money.

Indeed, porous borders in East Africa is inarguably a global concern and the center of gravity in global politics today rests on our ability to build resilient and well-prepared societies that can address the undercurrents of globalization, including the widespread smuggling of small arms.

Our initiative does not seek to build security for security’s sake, but to create conditions that will enable poor and vulnerable people to improve their lives. This is sustainable development through security.

In this light, the Stimson Center and the Africa Peace Forum have joined forces and will in 2012, through research, analysis and outreach on the ground, develop a Kenyan border security action plan detailing what will be required in terms of high technology, communications equipment, training and human capacity building to address porous national boundaries. It is our intention that this document will be a helpful tool for the Government of Kenya to solicit international assistance for building capacity at borders.

Ultimately, it is our hope that the private sector, manufacturers and trainers of many of the technologies and services that will be required, will be a part of the conversation with governments and perhaps even tailor-make capacity-building programs that will effectively respond to the issues that Kenya and the East African region faces. The market for improving border security is worth $18 billion per year globally, which should serve as a market incentive for progressive high tech and communications corporations to get involved and cooperate with governments, development and infrastructure banks, as well as civil society.

This is the time to rethink the role of governments, civil society and industry in creating innovative new partnerships that benefit the greater good. In our interconnected world, it is in the interest of both governments and the private sector for corporations to increasingly become a force for good, while still making profits. We must therefore do a better job at reaching out to the companies that manufacture and develop high tech and communications tools and enlist their support in building stronger societies.

Ultimately, we hope that this “whole of society” pilot program in Kenya will trigger a chain reaction across the region. As such, we stand ready to communicate the lessons learned and facilitate similar projects throughout East Africa as a next step.

Our efforts should be seen as an opportunity to pioneer a new way of helping people in distress while at the same time making the world a safer place. By using modern tools and innovative partnerships for the 21st century our efforts will simultaneously further the implementation of global mandates, such as the Millennium Development Goals, the forthcoming Arms Trade Treaty, as well as WMD nonproliferation mandates.

The future well-being of our planet rests on our ability to come up with solutions that go beyond traditional perspectives and ideas of foreign affairs. As you meet next week in Sälen, we ask you to join us in implementing our vision turning Kofi Annan’s persuasive rhetoric into equally powerful action.