Collective Security
tions. As a result, the United States was never part of the League.
Despite the United States’ refusal to join, the League of Nations is credited with a number of successes, such as the settling of a dispute be- tween Greece and Bulgaria in 1925 and between Turkey and Iraq in 1926, which ultimately declared Mosul to be part of Iraq. However, there were also significant weaknesses and failures with the League’s functioning. A notable failure (which led to Japan’s withdrawal from the League on March 27, 1933) was the Manchurian Incident – where Japan essentially annexed the Chinese region of Manchuria. The League condemned Japan’s ac- tions and demanded that it return Manchuria to China. Japan refused to withdraw from Manchu- ria and was left to its own devices with no mili- tary enforcement from the League or economic sanctions imposed by the League.
The League of Nations’ response to Italy’s inva- sion into Abyssinia in 1935 cannot be overlooked as yet another example of weaknesses that ex- isted within the League. Without carrying out an in-depth analysis, it is clear that the lack of the League’s effective and more weakening sanc- tions against Italy and the administrative difficul- ties which it faced are what led to the League’s failure in response to the war. While the League’s ability to maintain peace and security in this situ- ation was ultimately unsuccessful, its response, nonetheless, was actually the first true imple- mentation of collective security.
Significant failures of the League of Nations, par- ticularly its inability to avoid another world war (occurring only 20 years since its inception), cou- pled with its many weaknesses, most notably the fluctuation of member States and the non- membership of the United States of America, led to the League’s demise. The League formally existed from June 28, 1919 to its final session on April 18, 1946 where delegates from 34 member States attended. There, 33 States, with Egypt
abstaining, voted in favor of a resolution that effectively disbanded the League. Although the League was deemed to have failed and conse- quently disbanded, the notion and importance of collective security survived and led to the forma- tion of the League’s successor, the United Na- tions.
The United Nations
The United Nations (UN) officially came into exis- tence on October 24, 1945 to fill the role that the League of Nations was ultimately unable to real- ize – to maintain international peace and security, particularly to prevent another world war. Pres- ently, there are 193 member States, one non- member observer State and one non-member entity – the Holy See and Palestine, respectively. The United Nations has six principal organs (a structure designed in part, to avoid the difficulties encountered by the League) – the General As- sembly, the Economic and Social Council (ECO- SOC), the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, the Trusteeship Council and the Security Council. Most important in the discussion of col- lective security is the understanding of the du- ties and functioning of the Security Council.
The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security among coun- tries. Furthermore, it has the power to make binding decisions on member States through resolutions, whereas other organs are only able to make recommendations to member States. The membership of the Security Council con- sists of 15 Members of the United Nations. China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Re- publics (Russia as of 1991), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America were designated to be permanent members of the Security Council and the General Assembly shall elect ten other Members to be non-permanent members with due regard to the maintenance of international peace and security.
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 3 » February 2012
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