The International Law and Practice of Early-Warning and Preventive Diplomacy: The Emerging Global Watch

Despite the decrease in tension between East and West, the world is still faced by many threats to international security: a deteriorating environment, terrorism, drug trafficking, humanitarian emergencies, serious human rights violations and mass exoduses of populations. There is a growing need to devote more attention to how these international security challenges can be dealt with; piecemeal approaches and strategies no longer suffice. The interaction of security issues, and their global nature, call for broad and integrated strategies of management and of governance. States are now discovering that if they are to protect their own interests, they will need to entrust to the international community, through the agency of international organizations, competences for the protection of the common interest and human welfare. The United Nations will be called upon to operate an integrated global watch in the environmental, military, political, economic, social and humanitarian sectors: a system of early-warning can prevent potential political conflicts or humanitarian emergencies. The present work sheds some light on the principles of international law for the conduct of early-warning and preventive diplomacy, and shows the urgent need for the establishment of a true Global Watch. The world is now threatened by problems never experienced before in the history of the international community, and partnership and cooperation will be crucial if the international security challenges of the future are to be addressed successfully.