Collective Security Systems During and After the Cold War - Essay Example

Collective Security Systems during and after the Cold War Introduction Collective security started off from American president Woodrow Wilson. Collective security refers to a security regime agreed between the two superpowers, which emerged after the Second World War. The two superpowers set guidelines for maintaining peace, whose guiding principle was that an act of aggression by any single state would be met by a collective response from all the other states. This security system was to respond collectively to threats or attacks in all states. The theory of collective security intended to keep security and maintain peace through a sovereign international organization. In this assignment, I will discuss collective security during and after the old War. Since United Nations was a key organization in dealing with collective security, the organization will be emphasized in an attempt to discuss collective security. Discussion After the League of Nations became incapable of providing collective security to the states, it disintegrated; this led to the development of United Nations. According to the United Nations Charter, the United Nations was to provide peace and deal with security matters, but had to rely on the leadership of Russia and the United States since they were the two super powers. However, although the leadership of security and peace matters rested on the superpowers, the emergence of Cold War and its consequences, in terms of bloc politics, blocked the United Nations from performing its principal goal of providing collective security (Kupchan 1991, p. 123). In the hostile condition of the Cold War, the United Nations could not perform its role to implement the provisions of the Charter in most cases related to international peace and security. Although the Cold War barred the United Nations from performing its function satisfactorily, especially in security and peace matters, it successfully pursued its Charter goals in other areas like decolonization, which aided in achieving collective security. After the end of the Second World War, winners of the war saw the need of finding a World organization, which could deal with issues relating to maintenance of peace and security. On this bid, the United Nations became established with an aim of correcting the deficiencies of League of Nations. The principal intention of the superpowers while establishing the United Nations Charter entailed finding a remedy to chief weaknesses of the League of Nations; these included the absence of collective security system for the upholding of international peace. During the Cold War period, the United Nations played a significant role in fighting for collective security among states. After the start of the Cold War in 1947 up to 1960, formation of a collective security was a massive failure. The chief reason for failure of having a collective security system during this period arose from tensions of the Cold War. The idea, which was put during the formation of the United Nations, provided that the two principal powers had to direct the Security Council in formulating the collective security system. However, there emerged mistrust between the two principal powers, which led to divided ideologies of providing a collective security. This division between the two superpowers became vast since the United States used the United Nations to contain Russia (Thakur 2006, p. 109). Under these circumstances, it was remarkably difficult for the United Nations to establish the proposed machinery for maintaining international peace and security. Since West and East did not trust each other in undertaking military operations on behalf of the United Nations, the activities of the Security Council became limited to a capacity that it could not establish the collective security system. This became evident during the Korean War and the Suez Canal Crisis. During these two conflicts, the Superpowers were still divided and the UN was not capable of providing collective security. Hence, between 1947 and 1960, the idea of creating a collective security system was not achieved resulting from the rivalry of the two superpowers. Although collective security was not successful, the United Nations played a crucial role in providing peace and security worldwide (Moore & Pubantz, 2005). During the 1960s and 1970s, the United Nations provided aid in decolonization, especially in Asia and Africa. The decolonization was an immense aid to the achievement of collective security through the United Nations since it led to the eradication of the division, which existed between the two superpowers. The two principal powers diffused their distrust and continued to exist peacefully in the Cold War environment. Since the two superpowers were working together, development of the agenda to have a collective security system started showing up (Miller 1999, p. 307). However, after the start of the Vietnam War, the idea of having a collective security system seemed not feasible. This was due to the involvement of the superpowers in the Vietnam War. During the war, Russia supported Vietnam and America got involved in the fight. This made United Nations face difficulties in establishing collective security since both superpowers were involved in the Vietnam War. There was no way the United Nations could have supported one state leaving out the other. In an attempt to develop a collective security, the organization required the participation of both superpowers in the creation of collective security system. Although the United Nations did not succeed in the creation of a collective security since the superpowers were involved in the Vietnam War, the United Nations continued with its attempts to maintain international peace through the involvement the Third World states (Downs 1994, p. 216). During the 1980s, the United Nations’ intention to have collective security was thwarted by the prevalence of many conflicts during the period (Karns & Mingst, 2009). For instance, the Iran-Iraq war that saw the United Nations Security Council watch the two states fighting. The intention to have a collective security during the period was also thwarted by the reduction in the U.S contribution towards the United Nations budget. The continued division between the superpowers during the 1980s became an exacerbating issue towards failure of achieving a collective security system. However, the UN was not devastated by the continued divisions of the superpowers, which made achieving of its chief goal of providing collective security a failure (Eban 1995, p. 47). The United Nations kept the fire and objective real through cooperating with the permanent members in the Security Council. During this time of the Cold War, the establishment of a collective security system did not succeed due to unwillingness of the states to embrace an international goal of maintaining peace and security (Clark 1995, p. 241). Towards the end of 1980s, the United Nations goal to establish collective security among the international states became real with Russia changing its foreign policy, leading to the end of Afghan conflict. In addition, the vast cooperation of the Security Council ended Iran-Iraq War. Apart from these two significant developments, Russia improved its relations with the United States, which gave the United Nations an excellent opportunity to establish collective security. After the end of the Cold War in 1991, the United Nations became relieved since the significant problems, which prevented the establishment of a collective system were removed. The United Nations made immense contributions to the instituting of a collective security system, especially through engaging member states into signing of various peace agreements towards the implementation of collective security among states. After the Cold war, Russia and the United States agreed to be guarantors of the collective security agreements (Eban 1995, p. 41). Unlike during times of the Cold War, collective security has been embraced by the international states. The United Nations has ensured the implementation of the collective security through its various bodies. Following the end of the Cold War, the collaboration of the two superpowers led to the development and sustainability of collective security. For instance, after the signing of collective security agenda, the collaboration of the two superpowers played a significant role in ending the Gulf War (Weis 1993, p. 217). The United Nations restored the peace in the countries through using collective security. Although the United Nations used collaborative security in ending the Gulf War, several people criticized the collective security action since the military operation against Iraq, which involved U.S, did not have United Nations’ flags to indicate the United Nation representation in the operation (Bennett & Lepgold 1993, p. 223). Although some setbacks have faced the use of collective security, it has sometimes led to successes in the peace keeping mission. This has made collective security be criticized and supported by some individuals. However, after the Cold War, collective security has been appreciated by the international community for preventing outbreaks of conflicts. Conclusion Collective security refers to a security regime, which became agreed between the two principal powers that emerged after the Second World War. The two superpowers set guidelines for maintaining peace. The guiding principle entailed that an act of aggression by any single state would be met by a collective response from all the other states. After the League of Nations became incapable of providing collective security to the states, it disintegrated; the United Nations developed. According to the United Nations Charter, the U.N was to provide peace and deal with security matters, but had to rely on the leadership of Russia and the United States. Although the leadership of security and peace matters rested on the superpowers, the emergence of Cold War and its consequences, especially in terms of bloc politics, blocked the United Nations in performing its principal goal of providing collective security. References List Bennett, A. & Lepgold, J. (1993). Reinventing Collective Security after the Cold War and Gulf Conflict, Political Science Quarterly 108 (2). pp. 213-237. Clark, M. (1995). The trouble with collective security, Orbis 39 (2). pp. 237-258. Downs, W. D. (1994). Collective Security beyond the Cold War, London, Taylor & Francis. pp. 212-220. Eban, A. (1995). The U.N. Idea Revisited, Foreign Affairs 74(5). pp. 39-55. Karns, P. K. & Mingst, K. A. (2009). International Organizations, New York, Lynne Rienner. Kupchan, C. A & Kupchan, C. A. (1991). Concerts, Collective security and the Future of Europe, International Security 16(1). pp. 114-161. Miller, L. H. (1999). The Idea and the Reality of Collective Security, Global Governance 5(3). pp. 303-332. Moore, J. A. & Pubantz, J. (2005). The New United Nations, London, Pearson. Thakur, C. R. (2006). The United States, Peace and Security: from Collective Security, New York, M.E. Sharpe. pp. 106-127. Weis, G. T. (1993). Collective Security in a Changing World, London, Routledge. pp. 213-226 Read More