International Security Organisations

The aim of this volume is to present and evaluate the structure, functioning and areas of activity of the most important organisations from a security policy perspective, namely the world organisation, and the organisations of the Euro-Atlantic area and the other continents. It does so in a coherent structure that first introduces the organisation itself and its operational characteristics, and then, the crisis management activities. The United Nations is the first of these organisations to be introduced as the only universal international organisation. The reader gets an insight into what the theoretical construct of collective security means and how it works in practice. The authors then introduce four organisations that are key to the Euro-Atlantic area: NATO, the EU, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and then examine the mission activities of each organisation. The authors have devoted the three concluding chapters of the volume to an introduction to the security organisations of the three continents, Africa, Asia and the Americas.