The answer, he said, must be more "preventative diplomacy" aimed at stopping potential conflicts before they erupt into violence.

Lawrence H. Summers, the Deputy Treasury Secretary, frequently calls rescue operations like the I.M.F.'s part of "preventative diplomacy."

In it, he outlined a number of additional processes of preventative diplomacy the international community could use before peacekeeping, or simultaneously.

They foresee a more active role for the Secretary General in what is now known as "preventative diplomacy," which means identifying potential trouble spots in advance and intervening before they get out of hand.

Boutros Ghali, An Agenda For Peace: preventative diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping, New York: United Nations, 1992.

Those are the sorts of ways in which the Commission is contributing to preventative diplomacy and I hope that in future Europe will manage those tasks in a more coherent way.

It has adhered to a policy of preventative diplomacy, participating in I-FOR and SFOR, an international police task force.

It also suggests ways of strengthening the United Nations' ability to head off conflicts before they break out through "preventative diplomacy."

You want the preventative diplomacy so that if you have to act pre-emptively, other countries are with us.

With their unique geographical insight, regional organisations have a key role to play in early warning and mitigating the risks of conflict through preventative diplomacy.