Questions tagged [international-relations]
Questions about the relationships, agreements or interactions between countries. May also be used for questions relating to international organisations like the United Nations.
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How one-sided was (televised) note-taking in pre-2023 Xi-Putin meetings?
Some Western observers have made a big deal out of this regarding the televised bits of the last Xi-Putin meeting:
"The optics of the summit clearly favored Xi. Any talk of equal footing is just ...
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Why does People's Republic of China (PRC) tolerate the existence of a "de facto embassy" of the Republic of China (ROC) in Russia?
It is well known that Communist China (PRC) is really sensitive about countries that establish formal relations with the Republic of China in Taiwan (ROC).
One prominent example is the PRC reaction on ...
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How do Realists explain US intervention in the Korean War?
Many sources argue that President Harry Truman went into Korea to prevent the conquest of an independent nation by the communist North. His motivations stemmed from the urge to resist the advancing ...
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Was the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia an "invasion" or not? [closed]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "invasion" means:
an instance of invading a country or region with an armed force.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "armed force&...
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How is the USA spying on China?
Given the recent furore of the Chinese spy balloon over the USA, a particularly clumsy method of spying, I am curious as to how the USA is spying on China. It was only a few years ago after all when ...
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Why is it assumed that UN votes are always based on Realpolitik rather than genuine convictions of the country in question?
For example, take this recent question. The question is "Why are non-Western countries siding with China in the UN?", and the asker assumes that China has some kind of influence over non-...
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What is the reason behind the positive Israel-Azerbaijan relations?
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations on on April 7, 1992, Azerbaijan and Israel have maintained positive relations despite their religious differences. Israel has been a major arms and ...
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Why do countries sometimes not want to share intelligence on an investigation even if they are allies?
https://www.politico.eu/article/sweden-denmark-germany-nord-stream-investigation-tests-eu-intelligence-sharing-around-the-baltic/
It's a highly sensitive issue. The prosecutor leading the Swedish
...
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What are the significance of non contextual political visits?
I often hear political visits without an explicit context given, eg: the recent visit of Scholz to Modi. I don't understand it's significance, because if the point was to simply have a talk, they ...
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Is nuclear strategy a contradiction in terms? [closed]
Nuclear strategy is clearly distinct from other types of military strategy due to the awesome power of nuclear weapons. Most notably, mutually assured destruction (MAD) makes a traditional military ...
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The changing relationship between Democracy and Economic Growth (log GDP)
There has been contradicting evidence on whether being a democratic state is correlated with economic growth and/or higher GDP per capita. For instance, Barro (1997) argues in his book that a ...
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Is the link between China's research and espionage a recent phenomenon or a pattern?
In August 2022, a Chinese ship, the Yuan Wang 5 visited Sri Lanka.
This was claimed to be a "research ship" by China, while
India said it was a "spy ship".
This caused certain ...
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How does the USA know that the balloon they shot down was Chinese?
The USA has recently created a hot sensation around the globe by shooting down four aerial objects, the most prominent one being the 'Chinese Balloon'. How does the USA even know that the balloon is ...
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Does the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have any means to force Ukraine into negotiating peace with Russia? Does the U.S.?
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley urged Ukraine
and Russia to find a "political solution", saying that the war in
Ukraine is unwinnable by purely military means.
Does ...
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Did the US and allies ever apologize for their invasion of Iraq?
In reference to Did Soviet Union ever apologize for its alliance with Germany before 1941?
We all know that the US and its coalition has invaded Iraq in 2003. They have toppled a government which was ...
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Which country has the highest number of diplomatic missions in a single other country?
Which country has the highest number of diplomatic missions (embassies, high commissions, consulates general or consulates, but not honorary consuls) in a single other country? The mission must be to ...
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Who is supposed to be giving orders to the remaining Afghan diplomats of the pre-Taliban government?
As outlined in What's the point of continuing not to recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan?, the Taliban government is not recognized by any nation in the world. However the previous ...
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What's the point of continuing not to recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan?
As per Wiki, no countries have so far recognized the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate as the legitimate successor of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. But... what's the point of delaying the official ...
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Why were the UN Sustainable Goals created?
So far, very few to none of the Sustainable Goals have been achieved. What led to the creation of the SDGs, and were they actually expected to be achieved?
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Why would one argue that Interpol’s Executive Committee is "currently dominated by autocracies and Interpol abusers"? (Political abuse?)
The Politico's January 24, 2023 Foreign Affairs Opinion piece by Ben Keith and Ted R. Bromund1 Opinion | Interpol Is Doing Russia’s Dirty Work includes the following:
That’s technically true; the ...
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What are the legal and political consequences of exporting arms to a third-party country without the manufacturer country consent?
Poland has signalled that they may provide Ukraine with Leopard tanks even without Germany consent? What are legal and political consequences to Poland should they do it?
What if some other country ...
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What is the current state of US's dilemma on waiving CAATSA for India?
India's purchase of Russian S-400 was eligible for CAATSA sactions.
No sanctions have been applied yet using CAATSA.
There were talks that India would get a waiver, and
there was a house of ...
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Is there a statute of limitations on crimes by nation states?
In the past, governments have sanctioned acts that are considered barbaric today. As far as I understand some of those nations are legal entities that still exist today. Are those nations legally ...
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How does India access its air base in Tajikistan?
Farkhor Air Base is a military air base located near the town of Farkhor in Tajikistan, and is operated by the Indian Air Force in collaboration with the Tajik Air Force.
As we can see in the map, ...
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What are the likely international consequences if the status quo in Jerusalem is changed? [closed]
My question is based on the news from January 3rd, when Ben Gvir, the new National Security Minister of Israel, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is well-known that there is a status quo in ...
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Does the Chagos Islands sovereignty dispute cover all of the British Indian Ocean Territory, or a subset of it?
Part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) are the Chagos Islands, which are claimed by Mauritius. See Chagos Archipelago sovereignty dispute for more information.
Does this dispute cover all ...
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Has there been any explanation of why Kagame avoided the 'family photo' at the US-Africa Leaders Summit?
The US-Africa Leaders Summit was held in Washington from December 13th to the 15th, and according to the White House, was intended to "demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa,...
CDJB♦
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Why did most Western countries vote against the UN proposed resolution “Towards a New International Economic Order”?
The Assembly adopted the resolution “Towards a New International
Economic Order” by a recorded vote of 123 in favour to 50 against with
1 abstention (Türkiye). By its terms, the Assembly expressed ...
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What position exactly did Merkel express recently about the Minsk agreements?
Former German chancellor Angela Merkel gave an interview to the Zeit - but the Zeit is paywalled and I don't speak German. In that interview, she supposedly said:
I thought that the introduction of ...
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Can an American imprisoned in a foreign country object to a prisoner swap or other terms negotiated with the country regarding their release?
Say that an American gets imprisoned in a foreign country. The American government presses the foreign country's government to release them and comes to an agreement under which the latter will ...
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Validity of international treaties signed by autocrats
When a democratic country entries an international treaty, its democratically elected leader signs the treaty and democratically elected parliament ratifies it, making the treaty be accepted by a ...
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Are there really any "...world leaders who have no other diplomatic channel to speak to one another..." besides Twitter?
At about 03:58 in NBC News' New Wave Of Resignations Hit Twitter After Musk's Ultimatum For Employees, NBC technology correspondent Jake Ward says the following about current events in Twitter and ...
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Why is the embassy in Bern or Vienna rather than Rome accredited to the Holy See?
India has usually accredited its embassy at Bern, Switzerland to the Holy See.
But recently, India's ambassador to Austria was given charge of being the ambassador to the Holy See.
However, doesn't ...
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Does strategic ambiguity mean soft response?
Let's consider situations when country A wants to deter country B from doing some action (i.e. the USA wants to deter China from attacking Taiwan).
Such situations can be modeled in the following way. ...
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What can the U.S. do to convince its allies in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea to ban the selling of its chip making equipment to China?
In a briefing with reporters on Thursday previewing the rules, senior
government officials said many of the rules sought to prevent foreign
firms from selling advanced chips to China or supplying ...
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Objective arguments to support assertions that Saudi Arabia is "siding with Russia" and not simply just exercising sound fiscal policy?
CNN's October 7, 2022 Why Saudi Arabia defied the US over OPEC oil supply cut includes the following quotes:
“What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable, vicious war against ...
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Is there any example where a country completely dropped its historical or traditional ally?
Is there any example where a country completely changed its historical or traditional ally peacefully?
As an analogy, we know Turkey and Pakistan are traditional allies. Let's say India awards Turkey ...
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Why do Turkey and Azerbaijan have very close relations even though they are Sunni and Shia respectively?
In general, we see that Sunni and Shia sects in Islam do not get along very well.
Why do Turkey and Azerbaijan have very close relations even though they are Sunni and Shia, respectively?
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What is the point of the European Political Community when we already have the Council of Europe?
The European Political Community (EPC) (first) met in October 2022 as a gathering of 44 European states. It appears to be a forum in which states talk to each other.
This seems extremely similar to ...
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Which entities do have both a motive and a capability of disrupting Nord Stream?
Although the circumstances of the recent leaks in the North Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm are still not totally clear, the temporal coincidence of multiple leaks suggest that some ...
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What is "proportionate response" in international relations?
I have seen in quite a few answers here, and in general on the internet about the theory of "proportionate response" - in context of activities that nations do against other nations.
I'd ...
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Locating Primary Sources of SOFA and Mutual Defense Treaties
I'm doing a research project that requires me to examine the revision history of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and Mutual Defense treaties between the US and Germany (via NATO), the US and ...
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Why is US refurbishing Pakistan's F-16s? What impact will it have on US-India relations?
As per this news article and many others, the US has recently (September 2022) approved sustaining Pakistan's F-16 fighter jets.
During the Presidency of Donald Trump, the US-Pakistan cooperation in ...
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What is the sense of northern European countries being part of the Union for the Mediterranean?
The Union for the Mediterranean is an organization which has the aim of "enhancing cooperation and partnership in the Mediterranean through the implementation of specific regional cooperation ...
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Why are the G20 conferences such big events requiring high cost?
Note: this is a follow-up on this comment
Some of the G20 conferences incur high costs, both financially (up to hundreds of millions of dollars spent for organizing it + damages done by protests) and ...
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Why is freezing conflicts considered a good thing?
Suppose there is an armed conflict in an active phase somewhere. Let's consider it from a position of a third party which doesn't sympathize with either side of the conflict and wants to minimize ...
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Do Muslim countries other than Pakistan officially protest when there are anti-Muslim riots in India? More so than "the West"?
As a companion to this question are there examples of official protests (or calls for investigations etc.) by Muslim countries other than Pakistan when anti-Muslim riots happen in India?
Most ...
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What's the interest of reviving JCPOA when it can be revoked by the next US president?
In 2015 P5+1 signed an agreement(JCPOA) with the Islamic Republic of Iran and after 3 years, Trump revoked the deal and now they are about to revive it. Given that the deal does not have enough ...
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How effective are sanctions in overthrowing regimes?
One can read constantly in the media, that the West and especially the US announce sanctions against some countries. North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela are some examples.
In some cases like Cuba ...
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Does any international law support the claim that "Taiwan's independence or not should be decided by Taiwanese people, not by any other country"?
I wonder if any international law or agreement authorizes the Taiwanese people with the right to self-determination. Namely "Taiwan's independence or not should be decided by Taiwanese people, ...
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