Collective security and the Inter-American system

Collective Security and the Inter-American System

This paper, by David S. Painter of the Office of the Historian,is one of a series that provides background information on selected foreign policy issues. It was released by the Department of State in November 1986.

The Western Hemisphere has a uniqueexperience of international cooperation that goes back to the late 19th century. In the 1930s and 1940s, the American states developed procedures for collective response to external aggression and conflicts among nations of the hemisphere. These procedures were formalized in the Rio treaty and the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS). They have proved valuable in preventing or halting hostilities and have also been used to mobilize support against communism.

Background, 1989-1945

The inter-American system is the oldestregional society of nations in the world, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington from November 1889 to April 1890. The concept of collective security emerged as a major element in the inter-American system during the 1930s in response to attempts by the Axis Powers to increase their economic and political influence in Latin America. At inter-American conferences in Montevideo (1933), Buenos Aires (1936), and Lima (1938), the American states, in response to U.S. initiatives and U.S. pledges of non-intervention, agreed that whenever the peace of the hemisphere was threatened, the foreign ministers of the American republics would meet to consult on possible common action. A series of resolutions adopted at the first three meetings of foreign ministers (Panama, 1939; Havana, 1940; and Rio de Janeiro, 1942) further developed the inter-American system of collective security as the American states affirmed the principle of hemispheric solidarity against external aggression and established mechanisms to promote defense of the hemisphere. Meeting in Mexico City in March 1945, the American states adopted the Act of Chapultepec, which provided for collective action, including the possibility of the use of armed force, against aggression from either a non-American or hemispheric nation and pledged the signatories to negotiate a permanent inter-American collective security treaty once the war had ended.

The Rio Treaty

The goals of solidarity, cooperation, andcollective response to aggression and the procedures for consultation developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s were formalized in the Rio treaty (the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance), adopted at the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, held near Rio de Janeiro between August 15 and September 2, 1947. The Rio treaty established a permanent inter-American regional security mechanism within the framework of the UN Charter.

Under the treaty's terms, the signatorynations agreed to act collectively in the event of aggression against any one of them whether it was an armed attack or some other type of threat to their territory, sovereignty, or independence. Collective action could be taken not only against non-American aggressors but also against any member of the regional community which threatened the peace. The treaty provided that any party to its terms could initiate a meeting of foreign ministers by making a request to the Governing Board of the Pan American Union (predecessor of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States). The Governing Board could also act provisionally as the organ of consultation until a meeting of foreign ministers could assemble. Decisions on the application of sanctions against aggressors had to be approved by a two-thirds vote of a consultative meeting and were binding on all signatories, with the exception that no member could be required to use armed force without its consent. The Rio treaty went into effect on December 3, 1948.

The OAS Charter and Collective Security

At the Ninth International Conferenceof American States, held at Bogota from March 30 to May 2, 1948, the American republics approved a Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), which placed the inter-American system on a treaty basis and set forth its guiding principles, defined the rights and duties of its members, and described its organizational structure.

Among the essential purposes of theOAS, the charter included strengthening the peace and security of the hemisphere; preventing disputes among member states and ensuring the peaceful settlement of disputes that did arise; common action by the American states in the event of aggression; seeking the solution of inter-American political, juridical, and economic problems; and promoting economic, social, and cultural development.

The OAS Charter provided for anumber of collective security mechanisms to deal with threats to the peace and security of the Americas. Meetings of foreign ministers were to be held to consider problems of an urgent nature and to serve as the organ of consultation. The charter specified how and when such meetings should assemble and further provided that in cases of aggression, the American states "shall apply the measures and procedures established in the special treaties on the subject.' The charter also declared that "no State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State.' Measures "adopted for the maintenance of peace and security in accordance with existing treaties,' however, did not constitute a violation of this principle. The OAS Charter went into effect on December 13, 1951.

The Bogota conference alsoapproved an American Treaty on Pacific Settlement, known as the pact of Bogota, which provided for good offices, mediation, investigation, conciliation, and arbitration of disputes. The treaty entered into force only for those states ratifying it and, so far as their relations were concerned, superseded a number of prior inter-American agreements on peaceful settlement of disputes to which they were party. To date, 14 states have ratified the treaty. The United States signed the treaty but has not ratified it.

Collective Security in Action

Collective security procedures have beenapplied under both the Rio treaty and the OAS Charter, most often under the former but with reference to the latter on several occasions. The majority of cases have involved longstanding inter-American tensions, rivalries, or territorial disputes, and the collective security mechanisms of the inter-American system have generally been able to halt hostilities among disputants, if not to resolve the underlying causes of conflict. In many instances Permanent Council action has been sufficient, and the foreign ministers have not had to meet.

With a few exceptions, OAS actionhas conisted of investigating conditions and facilitating peaceful settlement of disputes. Sanctions were first imposed in 1960 when the sixth meeting of foreign ministers called on members states to break diplomatic relations and suspend trade in arms with the Dominican Republic.

Although the inter-Americansystem's collective security arrangements provide for the use of armed force in certain instances, the American states have been reluctant to exercise this option. In the case where military personnel have been utilized in conflict resolution, their role, with few exceptions, has been limited to that of observers or expert members of fact-finding missions.

Communism and the Cuban Threat

Several applications of collective andsecurity mechanisms have involved the issue of communism, and since 1959 the Castro regime in Cuba has been a source of special concern. The 1948 Bogota conference and the fourth meeting of foreign ministers (1951) adopted U.S.-sponsored resolutions condemning communism and calling on the American states to adopt measures to eradicate and prevent communist activities.

In response to U.S. initiatives, theTenth Inter-American Conference, held in Caracas in March 1954, declared that control of the political institutions of any American state by the international communist movement would constitute a threat to the independence and peace of the Americas and would call for a consultative meeting in accordance with provisions of the Rio treaty.

In June 1954, the United States andnine other member states requested a meeting of foreign ministers under the provisions of the Rio treaty due to "the demonstrated intervention of the international communist movement in the Republic of Guatemala and the danger which this involves for the peace and security of the Continent.' Although the OAS council voted to convoke a meeting of foreign ministers, the Guatemalan Government was overthrown before the ministers could assemble.

In August 1960, the seventh meetingof foreign ministers adopted the Declaration of San Jose which, while not naming Cuba specifically, condemned "the intervention or the threat of intervention' by an extracontinental power in the affairs of the American republics, and rejected the efforts of the "Sino-Soviet powers' to destroy hemispheric unity.

The eighth meeting of foreignministers, held in Punta del Este from January 22 to 31, 1962, rejected communism as a means of achieving economic development and social justice and declared that adherence by any OAS member to Marxism-Leninism was incompatible with the inter-American system. This incompatibility, a majority of the foreign ministers decided, excluded the present Government of Cuba from participation in the inter-American system. The meeting of foreign ministers called on members to suspend trade in arms with Cuba, excluded Cuba from participation on the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB), and established a Special Consultative Committee on Security (SCCS) to make recommendations on countering international communist subversion in the hemisphere. (The OAS terminated the SCCS in December 1975.)

Following the discovery of armsoriginating in Cuba on the Venezuelan coast in late 1963, the ninth meeting of foreign ministers, held in Washington in July 1964, condemned Cuba for seeking to subvert and overthrow the Government of Venezuela and imposed sanctions which included the breaking of diplomatic and consular relations and the suspension of trade and sea transportation, except for foodstuffs, medicine, and medical equipment.

Three years later, the 12th meetingof foreign ministers condemned Cuba for its intervention in Venezuela, Bolivia, and other American states and appealed to other Western states to restrict their trade with Cuba.

By the end of the 1960s, severalstates had begun to question continuing sanctions against Cuba. After the 15th meeting of foreign ministers in Novemeber 1974 failed to adopt a resolution calling for an end to sanctions, the 16th meeting of foreign ministers, on July 29, 1975, approved a resolution which left member states "free to normalize or conduct in accordance with the national policy and interests of each their relations with the Republic of Cuba at the level and in the form that each State deems advisable.'

An Inter-American Peace Force

The Rio treaty created the politicalframework for collective security, but it did not establish a combined military command (such as NATO) nor a military planning agency. Since its creation by the third meeting of foreign ministers in 1942, the IADB has performed an advisory role outside the formal structure of the OAS. In 1962, with U.S. assistance, the IADB established an Inter-American Defense College to provide advanced training for selected personnel from the armed forces of the Americas.

In these circumstances, inter-Americanpeacekeeping forces have been ad hoc and temporary. In October 1962, at the urging of the OAS Council, Argentina and the Dominican Republic participated in the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. In 1965, the 10th meeting of foreign ministers sponsored the creation of an inter-American peace force to help restore peace in the Dominican Republic.

Following the Dominican experience,some OAS members, led by the United States, called for the creation of a permanent inter-American peace force to serve as the military arm of the organization in future collective actions. Although this idea was discussed at various inter-American conferences over the next 2 years, it failed to gain the support of a majority of American states. The OAS also rejected a June 1979 U.S. proposal to establish an OAS peacekeeping force to help restore order in Nicaragua and provide conditions under which free elections could be held.

OAS Charter and Rio Treaty Revisions

Almost two decades after the Bogotaconference of 1948, the Third Special Inter-American Conference met in Buenos Aires between February 15 and 27, 1967, and approved a series of amendments to the OAS Charter (protocol of Buenos Aires). The protocol created the General Assembly as the new supreme body of the OAS (replacing the Inter-American Conference) and strengthened and broadened the organization's economic and social functions. No structural or procedural changes were made in the organization's security functions, nor was the Rio treaty affected by the charter amendments. The amendments went into effect in February 1970.

In July 1975, a conference ofplenipotentiaries meeting in San Jose approved a protocol of amendment to the Rio treaty drafted by the Special Committee to Study the Inter-American System, created by the OAS General Assembly in 1973. Among its provisions, the protocol narrowed the geographic area covered by the treaty, eliminating Greenland and some high seas areas; limited its applicability to member states rather than to all American states; provided that nothing in the treaty was to be interpreted as impairing "the principle of nonintervention and the right of all States to choose freely their political economic and social organization;' and added a provision stating that "for the maintenance of peace and security in the Hemisphere, collective economic security for the development of the Member States of the Organization of American States must also be guaranteed through suitable mechanisms to be established in a special treaty.'

The United States, in signing theprotocol, included a reservation stating that it accepted "no obligation or commitment to negotiate, sign or ratify a treaty or convention on the subject of collective economic security.' This reservation was retained when the United States ratified the protocol on September 20, 1979. To date, only 7 member states (of the 14 necessary for the amendments to enter into force) have ratified the protocol of amendment.

Table: Members of the Organization of American Statesand Signatories to the Rio Treaty

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