7. Collective Security

This chapter focuses specifically on the international institutions of collective security. It begins with a general discussion of the concept of collective security and its development over time in the context of the United Nations (UN) generally and the Security Council specifically. It then discusses the institutional features of some key organizations, particularly the Security Council, the UN Secretariat, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The chapter analyzes these international organizations (IOs) in the context of the four theoretical distinctions discussed in the earlier chapters of this book and concludes with a brief discussion of the concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P) as a cautionary tale of the evolution of post-Cold War collective security thinking.