Peace enforcement vs non‐violent intervention

Abstract

Although the term “peace enforcement” is a 20th century innovation, its origins date from at least Ancient Greece. Peace enforcement constitutes a logical corollary of the concept of collective security, where states agree to share responsibility for restraining nations that practice military aggression against members of the system, and thus threaten regional or international “peace and security.” In other words, collective security operates no matter who is the aggressor. This departs markedly from traditional defense agreements in which states ally themselves against those viewed as constituting a military threat, and in which states are therefore reluctant to act against their allies even when they commit their own aggression.

Collective security can pursue a host of activities for restraining states that pursue military aggression. These can be economic, political, or military. Peace enforcement constitutes the collective military actions sanctioned by states in a collective security system. It is the readiness by actors in a collective security system to “wage war against war.”