ABSTRACT
A better means for weaker nations to protect themselves, one that is more consistent with the principle of nonprovocation, would be to set up an international collective security system. Collective security became the first victim of the Cold War. Following Iraq’s attempted takeover of Kuwait in August 1990, global thinking about collective security has assumed a new urgency. One long-term goal of a UN collective security system is for nations to begin surrendering parts of their military establishments to the UN. A collective security system oriented strictly to defense would have approached Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait very differently than Operation Desert Storm did. the military mission of a defensive collective security system would not be to decimate the aggressor, but to restore national boundaries to the status quo ante. A UN collective security system would create a powerful new deterrent to interstate aggression, one that was entirely consistent with nonprovocative defense.
