Collective security in the post-Cold War world

Has the collective security system envisioned in the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations finally been put to use in the Persian Gulf war? The literature on collective security reflects the optimism of the formation of both the League and the United Nations, and it reflects the disillusionment with the subsequent collective security failures of both organizations. The disillusionment with the United Nations focuses upon the effects of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union as that competition eviscerated the UN's collective security capabilities. The hypothesis of this dissertation is this: US foreign policy was guided and constrained by UN collective security after the end of the Cold War. The main hypothesis is tested through a historical comparison of the collective security actions of the UN's past--the Korean War, during which, according to the hypothesis, the UN did not place real constraints on U.S. actions--and the UN's collective security actions during the Persian Gulf war during which the UN did, according to the hypothesis, place real constraints on U.S. actions. The research finds that the Korean War quickly moved away from any pretensions of collective security toward being a balance of power confrontation. During the Persian Gulf War the UN did not put real constraints on US actions during the months leading up to the shooting war against Iraq. However, once the shooting started, and especially after the ground war, support for the war diminished and disappeared. Consensus among the five permanent members of the Security Council shattered by 26 February 1991. The war ended the next day well short of the military goals set by US policymakers. This finding provides empirical evidence that collective security put real constraints on the actions of the sole remaining superpower, the United States. With the end of the Cold War, international relations among states are moving away from the balance of power reality of the Cold War and toward a more complex and more collective future.