Unit Four: Global Security management and multilateralism

Step One –Cooperation among states in the security field

Within the global political system, in the past, international security was achieved through national military power or a military alliance among powerful states. In contemporary times, security has rather attained a collective dimension, to be strengthened  within the  United Nations, as seen in Unit 2. Military alliances are thus becoming  outdated in foreign policy, with the only important exception of NATO.

Security is considered not only a collective good, but also a public one, since it is provided by someone (the hegemonic power) to the rest of the political actors pf the system for the everybody’s benefits.