The Struggle for Collective Security

It is only logical that countries try to avoid aggression and conflicts because of the costs of war, which include monetary lost, casualties both military and civilian, and property loss. Thus collective-security organizations were created to help to mediate between states in order to avoid interstate conflicts and aggression that could lead to wars. The United Nations is one of these organizations, its goals are to promote peace, security, and cooperation between its members. The members in the UN are assumed to have the same common interest which is to prevent aggression and war (FLS, 189). To date the UN members have been able to agree to collective-security measures only twice, Korea in 1950 and Kuwait in 1991.

The United Nations comes together when one state attacks or threatens to attack another state. Once this occurs they then calls all of its members together to determine what the next step will be to address the state that attacked first. The UN can utilize a economic sanction , military intervention, or other actions with the support of its members. The threat of calling all of the members together to punish the state that committed the “crime” is used to deter states from being aggressive toward one another. The UN serves as a neutral observers to the conflict and a peacemaker to resolve the problem and make sure that each side commits to their promises of peace. The UN however, has a hard time of getting its members to agree to collective-security measures and since its creation has only been able to resolve few conflicts.

Thus the question is then why is collective security such a difficult concept to enforce. The first challenge that makes it hard to enforce is the collective action problem, the UN does not hav...

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...cases their were other states who provided money and military power to support the UN's objective of maintaining peace. These cases also had one powerful actor that pushed from the war , the U.S., in order to protect their own interests and “to maintain justice and peace.” After the 1990's the international community witnessed many horrific wars, many of them civil wars in poorer countries. In the Darfur and Rwanda cases, which ultimately are genocides, the collective security response of the UN failed. In both cases and many other cases including genocide and civil war the UN has failed to intervene with strong enough responses that would create change or create peace. This is because none of the powerful countries in the UN are willing to step forward and provide financial or military support to the cause and without the backing of other states the UN is powerless.