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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]

Collective Security

Erika De Wet, Michael Wood

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law [MPIL]

Module:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]
Article last updated:
July 2023

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 03 October 2024

Subject(s):
Armed conflict, international — Aggression — Ethnic cleansing — Genocide — Collective security — Humanitarian intervention

Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the direction of Professor Anne Peters (2021–) and Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum (2004–2020). 

1 The expression ‘collective security’ is not a term of art in international law. It belongs more to the discipline of international relations, where a ‘collective security system’ may be distinguished from military alliances as well as ‘world government’. Military alliances are often aimed at defence against third States, while ‘world government’ implies a much greater degree of integration. Collective security has been described as ‘a system, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees...
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