We base our efforts to make the world safer on the following core beliefs:

	Without safety there cannot be security; without security there cannot be peace.
	Individual security, including the freedom to pursue one’s life ambitions in a climate free from tyranny, disease, intergroup violence, and the threat of nuclear weapons and other WMD, lies at the heart of peaceful societies.
	Global safety involves freedom from the threat of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction such as biological and chemical weapons. Global safety also means cutting off the flood of small arms threatening to destabilize governments around the world, particularly in Africa and Latin America. Locally, safety involves freedom from “machine gun” cultures and continual, destabilizing violence.
	Proliferation of nuclear materials and chemical/biological weapons technology means that the question is “when” not “if” a nuclear or chem/bio incident will take place. New means for halting the proliferation of nuclear materials, along with disincentives for using nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, must displace the outmoded Cold War system.
	Peaceful societies, with citizens free from fear, who are therefore able to hope and dream, are less likely to support or harbor terrorists.
	Stabilizing societies involves strengthening the links between democracy, development, conflict resolution and peacemaking, human rights, and health.
	Preventing conflict is ultimately more productive than responding to conflict in a crisis.
	In order to be effective in creating a safer world, NGOs that work in these fields must receive enough sustained support for strategic planning and logical growth.

While one foundation cannot solve the world’s problems, the Cypress Fund can have an impact by providing resources to key organizations that can bridge fields and operate within existing and new political structures, to create lasting mechanisms for stability and peace, globally and locally.