AN APPRAISAL OF THE CONCEPT OF COLLECTIVE SECURITY UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1         BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The issue of security is paramount to all nations. It is one word that attracts the interests of all. Be it security of lives, property, good health, environment etcetera. It is against this backdrop that nations come together to form a body that is saddled with the responsibility of conflict prevention, resolution, management, peace keeping and enforcement in the form of “collective security.”

The concept of security has acquired the strength of an ideology. It has multiple interpretations depending on the objective one wants to attain. In the name of security, different kind of persons emerge; liberation fighters, nationalist, terrorists, tyrants, dictators etcetera.

In the affairs of modern nation states, wars are declared and fought, women, children and the aged ones are lost, men are arrested, tortured, fired, sentenced or jailed all in the name of security.

The concept of security can best be defined or understood when qualified. For example, national security is the ability of a nation to protect its interests and values from perceived threats. Wolfers assert that national security “is the protection of all values previously acquired”¹. This we believe is an objective view of security.

The term collective security can be understood as a security arrangement in which states cooperate collectively to provide security for all, by the actions of all against any state within the group which might challenge the existing order by using force.

Apart from being a concept on its own, collective security also serves as an exception to rule of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. That is, while Collective Security aims at promoting friendly relations and equality of states within the arrangement, it does not forget the sovereignty of a state that makes it independent and free from political or economic exploitation and dominance by any other state or entity. This is the most reason why both the concepts of Collective Security and non-intervention are recognized under the Charter of the United Nations.

The concept, though in existence for long, as will be pointed out in its historical evolution, developed in the 80’s after the end of the cold war between United States and Russia when the perception or idea of security changed and was no longer restricted to military issues, but also to socio-economic, political, environmental and gender issues.

The world generally is threatened by conflict spanning from one continent to another. Africa is facing major challenges on the path to sustainable peace and democracy. The dangers and hazards have changed considerably over the last few decades. Instead of wars between countries, it is internal conflicts which have come to the fore, fed by organized crime, terrorism and the privatization of force. Social tension, the growing divide between the rich and the poor and the distressing lack of alternatives for young people offer ideal breeding ground for extremist ideologies. Add the flourishing trade in small arms and one has the perfect recipe for violence

But external dangers have also become more complex, requiring a coordinated approach at the regional, continental and global levels. Cross-border crimes ranging from arms to drug trafficking is challenging the state. Whenever cross-border criminal structures establish themselves, it is virtually impossible for individual national states to deal with these alone, rather it can only be tackled collectively and by cooperating with each other. ⁴

Thus, the need for nations to come together to establish an arrangement within themselves to tackle these huge problems of security becomes imperative. In all continents worldwide, there are regional security arrangements which form part of the collective international security arrangement. Collective Security concept therefore, is a strategy adopted by members of the international system to collectively restrain the use of force among its members. The principle stipulates that members would take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace and for the suppression of aggressive acts and breaches of the peace. ⁵Apart from its being instrumental to the establishment of regional security arrangement, the collective security concept has also been adopted in many instances around the world to maintain international peace and security, a responsibility which is generally referred to as peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace support and in some instances peace enforcement operations.