An international crisis is a crisis between nations. There are many definitions of an international crisis. Snyder [1] defines an international crisis a "...a sequence of interactions between the governments of two or more sovereign states in severe conflict, short of actual war, but involving the perception of a dangerously high probability of war". A crisis is a turning point or decisive moment in events. ... An act of war - the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombs over Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 people. ...

Types

Lebow [2] gives a breakdown of three types of international crises:

• Justification of Hostilities. One of the nations decides, before the crisis starts, to go to war and constructs a crisis to justify it. The pattern of justificaion is almost always the same: Rouse public opinion, make impossible demands, try to legitimize the demands, deny your real intentions then employ the rejection of the demands as a reason for war.
• Spinoff Crisis. The nations are involved in a war or crisis with another nation or nations and this precipitates another crisis, e.g. the Lusitania incident in 1915.
• Brinkmanship. Intentionally forcing a crisis to get the other side to back down. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is a well-known example of brinkmanship.

With the exception of a justification of hostilities, the study of international crises assumes that neither side actually wants to go to war, but must be visibly prepared to do so. In the words of Groucho Marx, "Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it". An act of war - the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombs over Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 people. ... RMS Mauretania, the Lusitanias sister ship The RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner of the British Cunard Steamship Lines. ... The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ... Brinkmanship refers to the policy or practice, especially in international politics and foreign policy, of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of disaster (to the limits of safety) in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome by forcing the opposition to make concessions. ... Groucho Marx poses for an NBC promotional photograph Julius Henry Marx, known as Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ...

Strategies

George's book [3] presents an overview of the process and conflicting goals of crisis management as well as many examples. He discusses a number of strategies, including: ...

Offensive strategies

• blackmail
• limited and reversible response
• controlled pressure
• attrition
• fait accompli

Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. ... Attrition may have multiple meanings: From a military standpoint, attrition means a gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through retirement, resignation, or death. ... Here are some examples of French words and phrases used by English speakers. ...

Defensive strategies

• coercion
• limited escalation
• tit-for-tat
• test of capabilites
• "drawing a line"

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to act by employing threat of harm (usually physical force, sometimes other forms of harm). ... Conflict escalation is the escalation of a conflict to make it more destructive, more confrontational, more painful or otherwise less comfortable. In systems theory it would be modelled as positive feedback. ... Tit for Tat is a highly-effective strategy in game theory for the iterated prisoners dilemma. ...

List of defused crises

International crises tend to result in war, almost by definition; they are then remembered best not as crises but as causes of wars. For information on international crises that resulted immediately in war, see List of wars. This is a list of lists of wars, sorted by country, date, region, and type of conflict. ...

Given the above, some of the crises that are best-known as crises were defused. The following crises did not immediately provoke large-scale violence:

• Anglo-Portuguese Crisis (1889-1890)
• Fashoda Incident (1898-1899)
• First Moroccan Crisis (1904-1906)
• Bosnian Crisis (1908-1909)
• Second Moroccan Crisis (1911)
• Rhineland Crisis (1936)
• Anschluss (1938)
• Sudetenland Crisis (1938)
• Iran crisis (1946-1947)
• Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
• Operation Paul Bunyan (1976)
• Able Archer (1983)

The Fashoda Incident (1898) was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between the United Kingdom and France in Eastern Africa. ... The First Moroccan Crisis (also known as the Tangier Crisis) refers to the international crisis brought about by the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Tangier in Morocco on March 31, 1905. ... The Bosnian Crisis of 1908- 1909 was precipitated by the annex of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October, 1908. ... The Agadir Crisis, also called the Second Moroccan Crisis, was the international tension sparked by the deployment of a German warship, the Panther, to the Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911. ... German troops march into Austria on 12 March 1938. ... Chamberlain holds the paper containing the resolution to commit to peaceful methods signed by both Hitler and himself on his return from Germany in September 1938. ... Iran crisis is called the situation in 1946 in Iran. ... The Berlin Blockade, one of the major crises of the Cold War, occurred from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949 when the Soviet Union blocked Western railroad and street access to West Berlin. ... The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ... Operation Paul Bunyan was a countermeasure taken by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in response to an attack by North Korean soldiers in the village of Panmunjeom within the Korean Demilitarized Zone. ... ABLE ARCHER 83 was a NATO command post exercise (or war game) conducted from November 2—11, 1983, which spanned the continent of Europe and simulated a coordinated nuclear release. ...

See also

• Diplomacy
• International relations
• Negotiation
• Crisis
• Crisis management

The United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization. ... International relations (IR), a branch of political science, is the study of foreign affairs of and relations among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). ... Negotiation is the process whereby interested parties resolve disputes, agree upon courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which serve their mutual interests. ... A crisis is a turning point or decisive moment in events. ... ...

References

1. Snyder, Glenn H. and Diesing, Paul: 1977. Conflict Among Nations: Bargaining, Decision Making and System Structure in International Crises. ISBN 0-691-05664-1
2. Lebow, Richard N.:1981. Between Peace and War: The Nature of International Crisis. ISBN 0-8018-2311-0
3. George, Alexander L (ed): 1991. Avoiding War: Problems of Crisis Management. ISBN 0-8133-1232-9

External links

• International Crisis Behavior Online Searchable analyses of 440 crises between 1918-2002