Collective security and the United Nations

This chapter examines collective security as an ideal and mechanism for conflict prevention and stability in the international system. States have long used tools and institutional structures to combat threats and manage uncertainty - such collectives or arrangements are a central tool of conflict prevention. Although the international law applicable to the resort to force, to the conduct of hostilities during armed conflict, or to the imposition of accountability or other measures post-conflict garners the most attention in the discourse on international security, the absence of conflict in and of itself is, unsurprisingly, a great measure of security. Conflict prevention - and the mechanisms for promoting and ensuring it - is therefore a critical link in the broader spectrum of international law governing conflict and security. This chapter first introduces the definition and goals of collective security as an ordering principle of international relations and then provides a detailed discussion of the United Nations Charter system of collective security as established in Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter.