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In international relations, multilateralism is multiple countries working in concert on a given issue. Multilateralism was defined by Miles Kahler as “international governance of the ‘many,’” and its central principle was “opposition () bilateral discriminatory arrangements that were believed to enhance the leverage of the powerful over the weak and to increase international conflict.” 〔Kahler,Miles. “Multilateralism with Small and Large Numbers.” International Organization, 46, 3 (Summer 1992),681.〕 In 1990, Robert Keohane defined multilateralism as “the practice of coordinating national policies in groups of three or more states.〔Keohane, Robert O. “Multilateralism: An Agenda for Research.” International Journal, 45 (Autumn 19901), 731.; see for a definition of the special features of "regional multilateralism" Michael, Arndt (2013). India's Foreign Policy and Regional Multilateralism (Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 12-16.〕 Multilateralism, whether in the form of membership in an alliance or in international institutions, is necessary to bind the great power, discourage unilateralism, and give the small powers a voice and voting opportunities that they would not otherwise have. Especially, if control is sought by a small power over a great power, then the Lilliputian strategy of small countries achieving control by collectively binding the great power is likely to be most effective. Similarly, if control is sought by a great power over another great power, then multilateral controls may be most useful. The great power could seek control through bilateral ties, but this would be costly; it also would require bargaining and compromise with the other great power. Embedding the target state in a multilateral alliance reduces the costs borne by the power seeking control, but it also offers the same binding benefits of the Lilliputian strategy. Furthermore, if a small power seeks control over another small power, multilateralism may be the only choice, because small powers rarely have the resources to exert control on their own.〔Cha, Victor D. "Powerplay: Origins of the US alliance system in Asia." International Security 34.3 (2010): 165-166〕 International organizations, such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature. The main proponents of multilateralism have traditionally been the middle powers such as Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the Benelux countries and the Nordic countries. Larger states often act unilaterally, while smaller ones may have little direct power in international affairs aside from participation in the United Nations (by consolidating their UN vote in a voting bloc with other nations, for example). Multilateralism may involve several nations acting together as in the UN or may involve regional or military alliances, pacts, or groupings such as NATO. As these multilateral institutions were not imposed on states but were created and accepted by them in order to increase their ability to seek their own interests through the coordination of their policies, much of these international institutions lack tools of enforcement while instead work as frameworks that constrain opportunistic behaviour and points for coordination by facilitating exchange of information about the actual behaviour of states with reference to the standards to which they have consented.〔Keohane, Robert O., Joseph S. Nye, and Stanley Hoffmann. "The End of the Cold War in Europe." Introduction. After the Cold War / International Institutions and State Strategies in Europe, 1989-1991. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. 1-20. Print.〕 The term "regional multilateralism" has been proposed suggesting that "contemporary problems can be better solved at the regional rather than the bilateral or global levels" and that bringing together the concept of regional integration with that of multilateralism is necessary in today’s world.〔Harris Mylonas and Emirhan Yorulmazlar, "(Regional multilateralism: The next paradigm in global affairs )", ''CNN'', January 14, 2012.〕 The converse of multilateralism is unilateralism in terms of political philosophy. == History == One modern instance 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 Concert of Europe, as it became known, was a group of great and lesser powers that would meet to resolve issues peacefully. Conferences such as the Conference of Berlin in 1884 helped reduce power conflicts during this period, and the 19th century was one of Europe's most peaceful. 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 20th century. The concert system was utterly destroyed by the First World War. After that conflict, world leaders created the League of Nations in an attempt to prevent a similar conflict.〔"The United Nations: An Introduction for Students." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. 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. Unlike the League, the UN had the active participation of the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's two greatest contemporary powers. Along with the political institutions of the UN the post-war years also saw the development of other multilateral organizations such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (now the World Trade Organization), the World Bank (so-called 'Bretton Woods' institutions) and the World Health Organization. The collective multilateral framework played an important role in maintaining world peace in the Cold War. Moreover, United Nations peacekeepers stationed around the world became one of the most visible symbols of multilateralism in recent decades. Today there are several 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). Many of these institutions were founded or are supported by the UN (United Nations). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「multilateralism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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