Multilateralism

Multilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue.

Most international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, OSCE are multilateral in nature. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security The main proponents of multilateralism have traditionally been the middle powers such as Canada, Australia and the Nordic countries. Middle power is a term used in the field of International relations to describe States that are not Superpowers or Great powers but still have Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Larger states often act unilaterally, while the smaller ones may have little direct power at all in international affairs aside from participation in the United Nations (by consolidating their U. N. vote in a voting bloc with other nations, for example). Moreover, multilateralism involves all nations acting together as in the UN and does not involve regional or military alliances, pacts or groupings.

The converse of multilateralism is unilateralism in terms of political philosophy. Conversion is a concept in Traditional logic referring to a "type of immediate Inference in which from a given Proposition another proposition is inferred Unilateralism ("one+side -ism " is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action

History

The first modern instances of multilateralism occurred in the nineteenth century in Europe after the end of the Napoleonic Wars where the great powers met to redraw the map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815 involved Napoleon's French Empire and a shifting set of European allies and opposing coalitions The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of the major powers of Europe, chaired by the Austrian statesman Clemens Wenzel von Metternich The Concert of Europe, as it became known, was a group of great and lesser powers that would meet to resolve issues peacefully. The Concert of Europe also known as the " Congress System " was the result of a custom following the era of Napoleon and the French Revolution adopted by Conferences such as the Conference of Berlin in 1884 helped reduce great power conflicts during this period, and the nineteenth century was one of Europe's most peaceful. See also Congress of Berlin (1878 and Berlin Conference of 1954 (Cold War

Industrial and colonial competition, combined with shifts in the balance of power after the creation - by diplomacy and conquest - of Germany by Prussia meant cracks were appearing in this system by the turn of the twentieth century. The concert system was utterly destroyed by the First World War. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All After that conflict world leaders created the League of Nations in order to try to prevent another conflict of similar scale. The League of Nations was an International organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920 A number of international arms limitation treaties were also signed such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris, after the city where it was signed on August 27, 1928, was an international treaty "providing But the League proved insufficient to prevent Japan's conquests in Eastern Asia in the 1930s, escalating fascist aggression and, ultimately, the outbreak of the Second World War from 1939. The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

After the Second World War the victors, having drawn experience from the failure of the League of Nations, created the United Nations in 1945 with a structure intended to address the weaknesses of the previous body. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Unlike the League, the UN had the active participation of the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's two greatest contemporary powers. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Along with the political institutions of the UN the post-war years also saw a wide array of other multilateral organizations such as the GATT (now the World Trade Organization), the World Bank (so-called 'Bretton Woods' institutions) and the World Health Organization develop. The 'General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade' (typically abbreviated 'GATT' was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO The World Bank is an internationally supported Bank that provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries for development programs (e The collective multilateral framework played an important role in maintaining world peace in the Cold War. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Moreover, United Nations peacekeepers stationed around the world became one of the most visible symbols of multilateralism in recent decades.

Today there are myriad multilateral institutions of varying scope and subject matter, ranging from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); although many such organizations were founded or are supported by the UN, by no means are all of them maintained within the UN system. The World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO) is one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW is an international agency located in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Challenges

The multilateral system has encountered mounting challenges in the period since the end of the Cold War. The United States has become increasingly dominant on the world stage in terms of military and economic power at the same time as it increasingly questions the relevance of multilateral processes to its interests, in some cases. Concurrently, a perception has developed among some internationalists that the United States is more inclined to act unilaterally in situations with international implications. This trend began when the U. S. Senate, in October 1999, refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which President Bill Clinton had signed in September 1996. October 1999: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Under President George W. Bush the United States has rejected such multilateral agreements as the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court, the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel land mines and a draft protocol to ensure compliance by States with the Biological Weapons Convention. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing Greenhouse gases in an effort The International Criminal Court ( ICC or ICCt) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for Genocide, crimes against The Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use Stockpiling Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (usually referred to as the Also under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the Nixon administration and the Soviet Union had negotiated and jointly signed in 1972. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty ( ABM Treaty or ABMT) was a treaty between the United States of America and the Soviet Union on the limitation Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Dictionary

-noun

Unbiased trade between nations, in contrast to bilateralism.
A system by which nations consult others in matters of foreign policy, by way of organisations such as the United Nations.

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