PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Key Concepts in International Relations
Discuss the conceptual dimensions of collective security.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
RE R1 realism leaves every state to secure itself → collective security makes security of one the concern of all → liberals read it as an institutionalised balance of power * R2 the defining shift → competitive balancing replaced by a universal guarantee → every conceptual dimension follows from that shift
Body flow
universality as the defining mark → Hartmann’s “mutual insurance plan… anywhere and everywhere” → no enemy named in advance, neutrality precluded → three conditions (treaty procedure / renunciation of war except self-defence / pledge to defend the victim) → Schwarzenberger’s machinery for joint action → institutional dimension → League: Article 10, each member judged aggression → Manchuria, Ethiopia → Charter centralises the judgement in the Security Council → Articles 39, 41, 42
Counter-view
the same universality strains → sovereignty indivisible, escape hatch retained → aggressor pleads self-defence, aggression left undefined → Morgenthau: freezing a status quo vs politics as struggle for power → Mannheim: “relative utopia” → the dilemma of waging war to prevent war
Conclusion routes
s R1 premise is overwhelming power, not equilibrium * R2 Korea shows it can work, Ukraine how seldom it does → noble in principle, constrained in practice
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
