By ROY CHRISTMAN

In 1945 the United Nations was organized as a collective security organization. It had other responsibilities such as health, children and trusteeships, but the primary purpose was to prevent one nation from gobbling up another. It was collective security because all the nations together would punish the aggressor. Think of the Three Musketeers’ slogan, “All for one and one for all.”

The big difficulty, of course, is what happens when one country is so powerful that it can take on the rest of the world, perhaps with nuclear weapons? The U.N. founders were aware of this problem. They gave each of the five original permanent members of the Security Council a veto power over military action. Those five included the U.S., the U.K., the USSR, France and China. The Security Council is the part of the U.N. that decides on collective force.

When the U.N. Charter was approved, only one power, the U.S., had nukes. Later the USSR, the U.K. and France also became nuclear powers. China for many years was represented at the U.N. by Taiwan, but when the actual China took its seat, it became the fifth nuclear power on the Security Council. Today, of course, there are at least four other countries with nuclear weapons, probably more.

Collective security has succeeded on a number of occasions. It worked in 1950 when North Korea attacked South Korea and 17 countries sent troops to aid South Korea, including Ethiopia, Greece and Luxembourg. (OK, sort of worked. The fighting ended at roughly the prewar boundary.) It also succeeded in the Balkans in the 1990s. It could have worked in Rwanda, but nations like the U.S. were reluctant to send troops into what was really a civil war rather than a war of outside aggression. It certainly worked the way it was meant to when Iraq invaded and seized Kuwait. Iraqi troops were pushed out by a coalition of nations, and Kuwait was freed.

Which brings us to Ukraine. While many countries are aiding the Ukrainian people by housing refugees and even supplying some weaponry, the fear is that overt military support for the Ukrainian government could lead to a nuclear war. The U.N. is supposed to prevent wars, not start them.

What about NATO? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a collective security organization, but only for members. Ukraine is not a member. Note that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are small and would be much easier for Putin to seize. He could use the same pretexts to attack them. Fortunately for them, all three of those small countries are members of NATO, and member states, including France, Britain and the U.S. would be obligated to come to their defense. Putin might be dumb, but he is well aware of that.

So, with Ukraine, it is collective security of the type that was not articulated by the Three Musketeers but rather by the Three Stooges: “All for one, one for all and every man for himself.” That is where we stand today. We want to help Ukraine, but we don’t want to create the conditions that might lead to a nuclear World War III.

Roy Christman taught Political Science and American Studies at San José State University before his retirement. He lives in Towamensing Township.