Multilateral Diplomacy and the Critical Mass of International Power
Professor Orakhelashvili discusses the critical mass of international power as the basis for multilateral diplomacy in the area of crisis management.
Professor Orakhelashvili discusses the critical mass of international power as the basis for multilateral diplomacy in the area of crisis management.
In my latest piece of inter-disciplinary research published in Chinese Journal of International Law I discuss the role of great powers in the management of major crises in international relations, at times they way that has provoked both academic and non-expert perception that great powers act as a form of international government. I conduct a comparative analysis of the 19th century European great power concert that included Austria, Britain, France, Prussia/Germany and Russia, and the United Nations Security Council in which five great powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the USA) enjoy a privileged position of permanent membership and the right to veto any substantive decision that they do not find acceptable. A common element underlying these two arrangements – one relatively ancient and another one functioning in our modern times – is the principle of the unity of great powers. This unity itself generates a factor that could well merit presentation through a basic concept of the interdisciplinary relevance – the concept of the critical mass of international power... Read full article