In addition to effective international weapons governance, stable international peace relies on improved and updated mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of international disputes and the more effective maintenance of collective security.
The fundamental principles and framework for these mechanisms are laid out in the UN Charter. However, the recent history of inter and intra-state conflict, as well as the present international disputes landscape – with its accelerating arms races and intensifying regional/international tensions – betrays the inadequacy of existing institutions. An upgraded, modernized approach to the peaceful settlement of international disputes would reinforce this key global norm and ensure that it is the cardinal principle operative in international affairs, as the 1945 UN Charter intended. In a complementary fashion, strengthened collective security mechanisms would prompt a further depoliticization of the use of force at the international level, in service of stable and prosperous global conditions.
This expert Working Group will revisit the current mechanisms for the peaceful resolution of international disputes and collective security and develop a comprehensive, modernized proposal for a general “upgrade” of existing international institutions under, inter alia, Chapters V, VI and VII of the Charter.
