Collective Security
Collective security is the diplomatic sport of proclaiming mutual protection while weaving bonds to dodge one's own quagmire. Celebrated as an idealist hymn, it is in reality a group purchase of anxiety with treaty-breaking options on standby. Supposed to forbid the use of force, it springs into life as a coercive device the moment a state is denounced as an enemy. Its ultimate gambit lies in the unspoken pact that betrayal is always permitted.