The Death and Birth of Peace and Security

This paper identifies “international peace and security” as a site of struggle at the heart of the post-WWII order’s decline. It examines two divergent visions of the notion, assessing their responsiveness to “why war happens.”

From one perspective, interrogated from the perspective of core states and allied elites, war’s causes invoke state-centric, rights-based Just War Theory justifications (“democracy,” “human rights,” “civilisation,” “anti-terrorism”) demanding peremptory defence. Economic factors, though acknowledged, remain peripheral to solutions. This view thrives in UNSC halls through sanctions and interventions under the status quo.

From another, peace and security’s cornerstone is structural economic and social justice—“no justice, no peace.” Prevalent during mid-twentieth-century anti-colonial struggles, this perspective challenges international law’s elitist core, integrating justice as seen by affected communities. Formative resolutions and scholars from that era inferred peace as negating domination, subjugation, and exploitation, placing coercive accumulation at the centre of legal thought on “why war” and “how to end it.”