Collective Security
not merely a state consisting of other nations. He promoted the concept of a world governing body, which would in turn, establish collective security. For Kant, the league would not dominate “over the power of the state but only to the mainte- nance and security of the freedom of the state itself and of other states in the league with it.” He asserted that this league should be called a “league of peace” – a league that would seek to end all wars and to not merely serve as a tempo- rary call to end one particular war.
Bahá’u’lláh
Although less commonly cited as one of the ma- jor authors of the idea of collective security, the writings of Bahá’u’lláh – founder of the Bahá’í Faith, seem to be echoed by the 20th century “founders” of collective security. In 1881, well before Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, Bahá’u’lláh wrote:
Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and pre- vent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any ar- maments, except for the purpose of pre- serving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation.1
Although there is no definitive evidence to sug- gest that there is a firm link between Bahá’u’lláh and Woodrow Wilson’s world-shaping proposal of the League of Nations, it is, nonetheless, interest- ing to note the commonality between President Wilson and Bahá’u’lláh – the well-known political figure William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, later to be President Wilson’s Secretary of State, was inter- ested in and encouraged by the Bahá’í teachings on peace and justice and even met with `Abdu’l- Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, in 1905. While Bahá’u’lláh is not presently and widely credited as a major proponent of collective security, there
is a strong similarity between Wilson’s ideas on a system of collective security and Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings from the late 1800s.
Collective Security: From Vision to Action
To understand how the system of collective se- curity was ultimately launched in a practical mea- sure, it is important to look to President Wood- row Wilson and understand the position that he found the United States in during World War I. Ultimately, President Wilson believed that the United States and the rest of the world were in a moral position to ensure that such events as those of the Great War never happened again. This belief, along with the burgeoning concept of collective security, helped move the idea from being a vision to action.
Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations
The most well-known contribution of Woodrow Wilson to the world, regarding collective secu- rity, stems from his “Fourteen Points” speech – delivered at a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. There, President Wilson called for lasting peace in Europe and also laid out a blueprint for this peace.
Wilson’s speech to Congress and his “Fourteen Points” were instrumental in laying a firm foun- dation for the concept of collective security, par- ticularly point 14. It is with this point that Wilson takes the notion of collective security to the more practical level – the need for the establishment of a “general association of nations.” Although Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” were strongly con- tested and challenged in the months following his address (and despite the haggling over claus- es and particular portions of the settlement), the Versailles Treaty finally created Wilson’s League of Nations on June 28, 1919. It was this insti- tution that Wilson and the rest of the world hoped would not only promote but would also guarantee security for all member nations and establish equitable peace throughout the world.
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 3 » February 2012
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