ABSTRACT
An international police force, a United Nations Peace Force (UNPF), would be capable of performing several key functions: as an enforcement arm for an international dispute resolution system; to deter international violence; and as a substitute, to a considerable extent, for individual country armed forces. Several prominent figures have endorsed this basic idea over the years, including at least four American presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. Other prominent peace activists are in agreement. One thing upon which peace activists (and others) are agreed is the inadequacy of the current UN system of so-called "collective security". The chief problem has been the veto in the UN's decisive security organ, the Security Council. FDR was very aware of this problem. Professor Randall Forsberg outlines the international structures that would need to be put in place: The rule of law must be preeminent.
