United Nations Reform and the New Collective Security

In 2004, the Report of the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change emphasised the linkages between economic development, security and human rights, and the imperative in the twenty-first century of collective action and cooperation between States. In a world deeply divided by differences of power, wealth, culture and ideology, central questions today in international law and organisation are whether reaffirmation of the concept of collective security and a workable consensus on the means of its realisation are possible. In addressing these questions, this book considers the three key documents in the recent UN reform process: the High-Level Panel report, the Secretary-General's In Larger Freedom report and the 2005 World Summit Outcome document. The chapters examine the responsibilities, commitments, strategies and institutions necessary for collective security to function both in practice and as a normative ideal in international law and relations between state and non-state actors alike.

Peter G. Danchin is an associate professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, where his academic areas of interest are international law, international legal theory, and human rights. Horst Fischer is Professor of International Humanitarian Law at Leiden University, the Netherlands; Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr Universitt in Bochum, Germany; and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York.