Multilateralism

[Page 508]Multilateralism has been defined as the practice of coordinating national policies in groups of three or more states. States engage in multilateral cooperation according to a wide range of rationales. Multilateralism can be a useful strategy to spread out the costs of international engagement, such as those associated with the prevention of human security crises (genocide, mass atrocities, gross government abuse, refugee crises), providing aid or provision in the occurrence of disasters (of human origin or otherwise), or armed military interventions to mitigate, halt, or prevent civil war or dyadic conflict. States engage in multilateralism because there is a sense that states can effect greater change or produce more meaningful policy results by working multilaterally rather than bilaterally or unilaterally.

In the post-World War II ...