This title was first published in 2002.This original text studies the UN system for the maintenance of international peace and security in the face of threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression. It assesses the Security Council attempts to employ enforcement measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in response to inter-state and intra-state conflicts, paying attention to the effect of the Council's increasing involvement in internal situations, both on the development of the system and on the outcome of conflicts. Filling a notable lacuna in contemporary literature, Mohamed Osman studies peace enforcement on its own and within an independent theoretical and empirical framework. The book will appeal both to students of the UN and humanitarian intervention, but also to international lawyers and political philosophers concerned with questions of intervention and sovereignty. In addition, its detailed case studies make the volume an excellent reference tool.