UN General Assembly
1953

118. Without a genuine peace system or an adequate body of rules based on the principle set forth in Article 2, paragraph 3, and other articles of the Charter, we shall never have peace in the true sense of the term, by which I mean a state of tranquillity and confidence in a legal system which will be universally respected and will provide the necessary means to ensure that no dispute fails to find a peaceful solution. Collective security is certainly a necessary condition for peace, but it is not peace itself, since no system of sanctions and punishments, however perfect, can be the ultimate aim of the coexistence of intelligence and free beings. Hence, the disequilibrium inherent in the unchecked growth of a collective security system not counterbalanced by a system of pacific settlement is harmful in every way and must be avoided. Loyalty to our Organization consequently leads us to point out the great defect in it, and in certain regional organizations or agreements, whose sole justification is the desire, in the words of Article 52 of the Charter, “to achieve pacific settlement of local disputes”, to which end Member States are required to “make every effort” by an express stipulation of the Charter.