Lieutenant General (retd) Satish Nambiar, the first force commander of the UN Protection Force for the erstwhile Yugoslavia, is among 16 members of a panel appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to identify security threats to world peace.
Former Thailand prime minister Anand Panyarachun will head the panel, which has also been asked to make recommendations for the "elements of a collective response" to the threats.
The secretary-general stressed that the panel was not being asked to formulate policies on specific issues, nor on the UN's role in specific places.