International relations is a field of study that draws on many kinds of learning, including political science, history, geography, law, and economics. This field of study focuses on the official contacts among different peoples, governments, and organizations. Such contacts may be peaceful or aggressive.
The term international relations also describes interactions between countries. It includes the operations of multinational corporations (businesses that operate in two or more countries). It takes in such worldwide programs as the Red Cross and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). International relations also involves such activities as the movement of people and the flow of trade between countries. Technological advances, such as air travel, the Internet, and mobile phone communications, have made it easier for groups and individuals in different countries to interact with one another.
International relations are a part of the government in every country. Every government engages in international relations for the benefit of its citizens or to advance basic values. Thus, governments cooperate with one another if such action serves the interests or values of their people. At times, governments work together to try to solve such global problems as pollution.
No world government has the authority to force national governments to cooperate. The government of every independent state is sovereign—that is, it recognizes no authority in its own land higher than its own. Legal sovereignty does not ensure actual sovereignty, however. Different levels of economic development and military strength among countries prevent some nations from acting as they choose. In certain cases, rulings by international courts or actions taken by the United Nations (UN) may also compromise a nation’s sovereignty.
Conducting international relations
Countries maintain peaceful international relations by a number of methods, including diplomacy, international conferences and organizations, treaties, and international law. They also try to influence each other by using economic and other nonmilitary sanctions (penalties).
When peaceful methods prove ineffective, governments may feel strongly enough about their interests to resort to military action. A number of limited wars have occurred since World War II ended in 1945. But most governments work to solve their problems and settle their disputes peacefully. Most government leaders realize a limited war could grow into a general war involving many countries or nuclear weapons.
Diplomacy.
Traditionally, governments have maintained relations with each other through diplomacy. Governments usually send diplomats to serve in other countries. Ambassadors (high-level representatives) and other diplomats carry on daily relations between their home government and the government of the country where they serve (see Ambassador ). They protect the rights of fellow citizens abroad and work toward political advantages for their government. They attempt to settle international disputes through negotiations (discussions).
Every nation has an office for the conduct of foreign affairs. In the United States, for example, this office is the Department of State (see State, Department of ). In Canada, the office is the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and in Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A nation’s office of foreign affairs supervises the government’s relations with other governments. This office assigns diplomats to other countries and sends representatives called consuls to foreign cities. Consuls work to promote and protect the economic interests of their fellow citizens who are abroad.
International conferences and organizations.
International problems may involve many countries, or several disagreements may have to be settled at the same time. To resolve such problems, governments may send diplomats or other representatives to international conferences. Between 1967 and 1982, for example, the UN sponsored a series of meetings to draw up an international treaty governing the development and protection of the oceans. In some cases, two or more heads of government may hold a summit conference.
Most nations belong to the United Nations and send delegates to this international organization. The delegates discuss ways of solving problems and promoting world peace. The Security Council is the UN’s main peacekeeping agency. It may call on UN members to end contacts with a country that is endangering world peace. The Security Council also may ask UN members to furnish military forces to settle an international dispute. Such international peacekeeping forces have grown in number since 1985.
Treaties.
A treaty is a formal agreement, typically between two or more governments. The agreement may be bilateral (signed by two countries) or multilateral (signed by more than two countries). Only the official representatives of independent countries may draw up a treaty. Before the agreement can go into effect, it must be approved by the governments of the countries involved.
A nation may sign a treaty to promote its economic interests. For example, two or more governments may agree to remove tariffs and other trade barriers between their countries. In the 1950’s, some European countries signed such treaties to form the European Economic Community. This organization paved the way for creation of the European Union in 1993 (see European Union (EU) ).
Governments may sign treaties of alliance to provide military protection for their countries. Such a treaty may require that the signing countries help one another if any one of them is attacked. In 1949, the United States, Canada, and a number of European nations signed a treaty of alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of former Soviet republics also have signed this treaty.
Countries may sign arms-control treaties to limit, regulate, reduce, or eliminate their weapons or armed forces. Since 1960, the United States and other countries have signed treaties designed to control nuclear weapons.
International law
consists of rules that governments are expected to observe in their relations with one another. Some rules develop through custom. Others have been established in treaties.
The oldest international laws treat such matters as the rights of persons traveling abroad, the rights of merchant ships outside their own waters, and the rights of aircraft flying through foreign airspace. The International Court of Justice, an agency of the UN, settles certain international disputes on the basis of international law. But no country is required to appear before the court. In 1998, 120 UN member nations approved a treaty calling for the establishment of an independent court, the International Criminal Court (ICC), for the prosecution of war crimes and other offenses. The court began operations in 2003. See International law .
Nonmilitary sanctions
may be used by one country to pressure another country to change its policies. Such sanctions include boycotts and embargoes. In a boycott, a government may prohibit its people from buying another nation’s products. Other boycotts involve a refusal to participate in sporting events or other activities. In an embargo, a government restricts or discontinues its trade with another nation. Sanctions may also include the suspension of financial assistance.
History
Many historians believe that extensive international relations began during the 1500’s, when strong national governments were being established in Europe. The term international relations came into use in the 1700’s.
From the 1500’s to the 1900’s,
the balance of power was an important principle of international relations. Governments used this principle to maintain international peace. If any nation seemed to grow too powerful, a group of weaker nations formed a temporary alliance to balance power.
England and its successor, the United Kingdom, provided a balance of power in Europe for much of the period from the 1500’s to the 1900’s. If two countries or groups of countries threatened each other, the United Kingdom joined the weaker side to maintain the power balance. During the early 1800’s, Napoleon I of France built a huge empire and upset the balance of power. Several countries, including the United Kingdom, formed an alliance against France. Their victory over the French in 1815 restored the balance of power.
From late 1814 through early 1815, European leaders held a series of meetings called the Congress of Vienna and developed a new principle of conducting international relations. Under this principle, called the concert of powers, the great powers of Europe supposedly cooperated to keep peace. But they did not always agree on what to do. As a result, several wars broke out in Europe between 1815 and the start of World War I in 1914.
Collective security
is an agreement in which each member of a group of nations agrees to come to the aid of any other member nation that is attacked. Collective security is a relatively new principle of international relations, developed after World War I ended in 1918. Representatives of 32 countries met near Paris in 1919 to draw up a peace settlement and discuss collective security.
The League of Nations was established in 1920. This association of countries hoped to maintain world peace through collective security. But the League failed to keep the peace. It took no effective action after Japan attacked China in 1931 and again in 1937. The League also did nothing to stop Italy from conquering Ethiopia in 1936, or Germany from taking over Austria in 1938. World War II began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland.
The League failed partly because it had no international police force to keep one country from attacking another. Also, all member nations had an equal say in decisions, and the larger and more powerful members often refused to support the decisions of the majority. The United States refused even to join the League.
The United Nations was established in 1945, shortly after World War II ended. The League of Nations was abolished in 1946. All UN members, including the United States, pledged to cooperate in maintaining peace through collective security. But they did not give the UN the means—that is, a permanent police force—to back up their promise. See United Nations (UN) .
The UN came close to making collective security work during the Korean War, which began in 1950. The United States and 15 other UN members sent troops to fight the North Korean forces that had invaded South Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 after North Korea and the UN signed a cease-fire agreement.
The Cold War begins.
After World War II, relations became increasingly tense between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world’s most powerful countries. In the 1940’s, many people in the United States and other Western countries became alarmed as all the nations of Eastern Europe fell under Communist rule. Most of these nations became Soviet satellites (nations controlled by the Soviet Union). Tension between the Communist and non-Communist nations led to the division of Germany into Communist East Germany and non-Communist West Germany in 1949.
Also in 1949, the United States, Canada, and certain European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty. Later that year, they established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which provided unified military leadership for the defense of member nations. In 1955, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies signed a treaty, the Warsaw Pact, to provide for their common defense. The signers of the pact claimed it was formed in response to the creation of NATO. By the end of the 1950’s, the United States and the Soviet Union each had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other, and many countries had allied themselves with one of the two nations. The struggle between the Communist nations and the democratic nations came to be called the Cold War. However, some countries refused to join either side.
The Vietnam War
also involved conflict between Communists and non-Communists. The war began in 1957. The Communist government of North Vietnam pledged to overthrow the non-Communist South Vietnamese government and unite the country under one rule. The United States sent military aid and advisers to support South Vietnam. By April 1969, more than 543,000 U.S. troops were fighting in South Vietnam. A cease-fire agreement ended U.S. participation in 1973. But the war continued until Communists won full control of South Vietnam in 1975.
New patterns of international relations
developed during the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s. Japan and the Western European nations grew in economic strength. As a result, they began acting more independently of their chief ally, the United States. China also gained economic and political strength and disagreed with its ally, the Soviet Union, on many points. A period of unfriendly relations between China and the Soviet Union began in the early 1960’s. In 1969, Chinese and Soviet troops clashed in a series of border fights.
As Cold War alliances loosened, some Communist and non-Communist countries developed friendlier relations. This easing of tensions was called detente << day TONT >> . The United States, plus Canada, Japan, and several other U.S. allies, sent diplomats to China. China joined the UN in 1971. In 1979, China and the United States began normal diplomatic relations. This action resulted in increased business, cultural, and diplomatic exchanges between the two countries.
But Cold War tensions rose again after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Soviet forces attempted to aid Afghanistan’s pro-Soviet government. That government was fighting a civil war against anti-Communist Afghan rebels.
The Cold War ends.
During the late 1980’s, U.S.-Soviet relations began to improve dramatically. In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty that was the first of a series of agreements to reduce the size of U.S. and Soviet nuclear forces. U.S.-Soviet relations improved further in 1989, when the Soviet Union completed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
Major changes within the Soviet Union also contributed to improved relations. Gorbachev worked to increase democracy and freedom of expression in the Soviet Union. He encouraged similar changes in Eastern Europe. As a result, non-Communist governments came to power in some Eastern European nations. In 1990, with Soviet approval, East Germany and West Germany united to form one non-Communist country.
The collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1991, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lost control of the Soviet government after conservative Communist officials attempted to overthrow Gorbachev. The attempt failed, and the Soviet parliament suspended all Communist Party activities. By the end of 1991, most of the republics that made up the Soviet Union had declared independence, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The Arab-Israeli conflict.
International peacekeeping and cooperation have achieved some success in the Arab-Israeli disputes, but local wars continue to break out. The Arab-Israeli conflict began in 1948, when Israel was established. Neighboring Arab countries opposed the existence of the new Jewish nation. Full-scale wars broke out in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Despite peacekeeping efforts, tensions between Arab countries and Israel continue. The Arab-Israeli fighting and local wars in other parts of the world have led many experts to believe that achieving lasting peace is extremely difficult.
The Persian Gulf War of 1991
took place after Iraqi forces invaded and occupied Kuwait in August 1990. Kuwait is a small, oil-rich country bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In response to Iraq’s action, the UN Security Council first imposed severe economic sanctions against Iraq and later authorized UN members to use military force to expel Iraq from Kuwait. In early 1991, a coalition of 39 nations quickly defeated Iraq and drove it from Kuwait. Almost all the coalition countries were UN members. The war strengthened the UN’s role as a peacekeeping organization. See Persian Gulf War of 1991 .
The Balkan conflicts.
A series of conflicts occurred on the Balkan Peninsula after the 1991 breakup of Yugoslavia. In the mid-1990’s, NATO troops occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina to maintain peace between hostile ethnic groups there (see Bosnia-Herzegovina (Independence and war) ). In 1999, NATO engaged in air strikes against Serbia in an attempt to stop Serbian persecution of Albanians in Kosovo (see Yugoslavia (The breakup of Yugoslavia) ). Many people praised these efforts as examples of a “new internationalism.”
Globalization.
The word globalization refers to the growing interconnections between people, companies, and countries around the world. The term came into use in the early 1990’s as a way of describing the dramatic increases in the international flow of goods, services, money, ideas, and information. By 2000, some people saw globalization as the wave of the future. However, others warned that globalization was harmful. These critics feared that globalization helped powerful nations take advantage of weaker ones, gave excessive power to corporations, and interfered with the governmental processes of individual countries.
The war against terrorism.
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States killed thousands of people, including the citizens of many different countries. Following the attacks, the United States formed an international diplomatic coalition against international terrorist groups. In October, the United States began military strikes against Afghanistan, the country containing the headquarters of the terrorists believed to be responsible for the attacks. In addition, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution requiring all member nations to take steps against international terrorism. Both the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly stressed that governments that sponsor, assist, or protect terrorist groups will be punished. The U.S.-led alliance in Afghanistan was replaced by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping forces in 2006. Fighting in Afghanistan continued against groups allied with terrorism, such as the Taliban and al-Qa`ida.
The Iraq War.
In late 2002 and early 2003, members of the UN Security Council debated whether to take military action against the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government argued that Hussein supported terrorist organizations and was concealing illegal weapons programs. The United States pressed for military action, while Security Council members, such as France, Germany, and Russia, argued for more time to seek a diplomatic solution. The sides failed to reach an agreement, and a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq without the backing of the Security Council. The UN and the governments of many countries expressed regret that the council was unable to reach an agreement. The invasion led to the fall of Hussein’s government in April 2003. The next month, the UN Security Council voted to lift the economic sanctions it had imposed on Iraq in 1990. United States combat operations in Iraq ended in 2010, and the war officially ended on Dec. 15, 2011. See Iraq War .
