Transcript COLLECTIVE SECURITY - High Point University

COLLECTIVE SECURITY
• Hobbes & Rousseau: Do we need an
international Leviathan that imposes its will?
What are the main advantages and problems
with this approach?
• Kant: Can we all work together to have
collective security involving all nations (i.e.,
the League of Nations)? What are the main
problems and advantages with this
approach?
COLLECTIVE SECURITY
The middle options:
• Great power security concerts: Where (1) all
important states are committed to maintaining the SQ
and the other GP’s; (2) no major action takes place
without consensus; (3) States don’t upset the SQ
unilaterally… The UN’s Security Council mostly
• Regional collective security systems like NATO, the
Warsaw Pact which are more flexible to the rise and
fall of powers.
• Trying to create international institutions that can
mitigate the core causes of some conflict (new state
recognition, refugees, development, and trade/
finance issues)
• Creating international norms and venues for dispute
resolution (human rights, the world court, R2P).
WHAT IS THE UN SUPPOSED TO DO
AND HOW?
•Its mandate: Punish state violators of intl. law related to sovereignty
and security:
•Deal with inter-state aggression: Korea (1950s), Iraq I
•Deal with regional threats: Iraq 2, N. Korea, Iran
•Prevent genocide: Darfur
•Dispute resolution, buffering & peacekeeping; 2010 124th troops
in 16 missions (x9 increase since 2009)
•Social investment to prevent crises (UNICEF, WHO)
•Economic security (IMF, World Bank, WTO)
•Humanitarian intervention if asked (Somalia)
•A new norm emerging: R2P (permission to intervene if war
crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity)
•Its options and resources:
•Economic and / or soft sanctions
•Permitting military intervention by third parties
•Aid and expertise
WHY IS THE UN FAILING? (1)
Some say it doesn’t work: 680 intl. military exchanges during its 1st 45
yrs; multiple genocides, an inability to deal with new problems
Maybe it is working: No major conflicts to date, the containment of
nukes, and considerable learning over time; human rights norms and an
intl. trade system
The biggest challenges:
•The Article of Confederation problem: The UN system emphasizes
sovereignty at the expense of other considerations
•The intl. system in general, and the UN in particular, still favors
powerful and rich, which has led to a North-South split
•The security council’s 5 vetoes on major policy and UN leadership
posts is too inflexible both with respect to process and representation
of changes in the intl system.
•No autonomy or isolation for UN ambassadors
•Ideological splits among the security council members prevent the UN
from working; they violate intl. law themselves.
•A GP concert is supposed to say that only when we all agree there will
be action… but here is a lack of a collective leadership among the GPs.
WHY IS THE UN FAILING? (2)
•The General Assembly has too little ability to initiate: Its
resolutions not binding
•No independent funding: $5 billion or so this year, plus
another $10b in peacekeeping; by comparisons the US dept
of defense = $900b or so this yr); In the big picture 1/1000 the
total funding that is spent on military funding globally
•It gives equal voice to morons
•Too many agencies and tasks for just 60 thousand
employees
•No armed force of its own; no wonder it uses a screwdriver
(diplomacy) when it needs a hammer.
•Submission to the jurisdiction of the World Court is optional
•Lack of clarity/ binding rules on the use of force
HOW DO WE FIX THINGS IN THE WORLD OF
COLLECTIVE SECURITY? (1)
Replace the UN with an expanded NATO or a league of
democracies?
Should we reform the UN’s leadership?
•More autonomy and resources for the secretary
general? Should we have a global tax (on carbon?) and
permanent civil service?
•Adopt a 25 member sec. council with 6 more perm.
Members (Br, Ind, Germ, Jap)
•Get rid of the vetoes or at least restrict their use (4/5ths
approval? No using it for yourself?)
•Set standards for who sits on the Commission on
Human Rights and other key commissions
HOW DO WE FIX THINGS IN THE WORLD OF
COLLECTIVE SECURITY? (2)
Expand the UN’s Mission by rethinking sovereignty?
•Implement a mandatory Right to Protect obligation: The
UN should take on formal responsibility to protect
civilians when states do not (go beyond genocide and
security justifications to require outside intervention in
the case of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes
against humanity).
•Become proactive on self-defense, including clarifying
the use of preventative force
•Deal with wars within states; set up more peacekeeping
options
•More aggressive attack on poverty & disease in the
South