Legality, legitimacy, and multilateralism.

• Author: Toshiki, Mogami
• Position: Essay

The pursuit of peace has been omnipresent throughout history, and given the omnifarious nature of the concept, the ideas and means for its realization have been as diverse as can be. Some fancied simply subjugating by force; others emphasized the effectiveness of international arbitration or adjudication; some found it useful to establish international organizations, possibly with a collective security system; some even thought of creating a regional integration body so that state sovereignty could be tamed; still others held that guaranteeing human security in order to eradicate abject poverty and other everyday menaces should be the way. Today, some assert that the contemporary imperative is to win the war against transnational terrorism.

This list, which is only an abridged one, reflects that issues in peace correspond to the problematique of the day and the intellectual and political posture adopted to face those issues. Some authors place an emphasis on forcible means for peace, while others prioritize less violent means, such as consultations and cooperation in international organizations, as well as the reinforcement of states abiding by law. This latter, less-violent idea may also include a shift in the concept of peace to one that accentuates the importance of positive peace, which is coterminous with the abolition of structural violence.

In spite of the diversity mentioned above, it seems we could identify a few trends in the process towards global security and peace, especially if we set aside the problem of structural violence. First, the global process to peace has evolved around the axis of judicialization, which means setting legal standards for major international issues and guiding states' behaviour toward these standards. The history of the attempts made towards outlawing war is clear evidence of this, starting from discreet regulation of war and culminating in a general prohibition of the use of force. Second, this global process is also characterized by the notion of legitimacy, which has increasingly become required as a means to achieve peace. The efforts made to obtain Security Council authorization for states' use of force exemplify this trend. And third, the institutionalization of the peacebuilding process has been in motion, meaning that world peace and security have, gradually, been pursued multilaterally though not to the complete exclusion of bilateralism.

The important point in this regard is that the first...