Multilateral Diplomacy and the Critical Mass of International Power

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