An Autopsy of Collective Security
A logical analysis of the inherent contradictions that lie at the root of the concept of collective security leads to pessimism about the establishment or maintenance of this form of international system. Particularly, the essential condition of collective security-concert-and the essential function of collective security-enforcement-are not only improbable in themselves, empirically, but are arrayed in a logical contradiction, one with the other.' "Collective security" is the salient feature of a distinct type of international system, one which might become an object of the foreign policy of nations. International systems can be identified, defined, and differentiated in terms of three kinds of operational elements: the distribution of power; the mechanisms for regulating or controlling power; and the behavioral "rules" that are internalized by each member of the system and reflected in its foreign policy. Defining international systems in