Bilateralism

Bilateralism

:"This article is about the political term; for the term as used in biology, see symmetry (biology)."

Bilateralism comprises the political and cultural relations between two states.

Most international diplomacy is done bilaterally. Examples of this include treaties between two countries, exchanges of ambassadors, and state visits. The alternatives to bilateral relations are multilateral relations, which involve many states, and unilateralism, when one state acts on its own.

There has long been a debate on the merits of bilateralism versus multilateralism. The first rejection of bilateralism came after the First World War when many politicians concluded that the complex pre-war system of bilateral treaties had made war inevitable. This led to the creation of the multilateral League of Nations.

A similar reaction against bilateral trade agreements occurred after the Great Depression, when it was argued that such agreements helped to produce a cycle of rising tariffs that deepened the economic downturn. Thus, after the Second World War, the West turned to multilateral agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Despite the high profile of modern multilateral systems such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, most diplomacy is still done at the bilateral level. Bilateralism has a flexibility and ease that is lacking in most compromise-dependent multilateral systems. In addition, disparities in power, resources, money, armament, or technology are more easily exploitable by the stronger side in bilateral diplomacy, which powerful states might consider a positive aspect of it, compared to the more consensus-driven multilateral form of diplomacy, where the one state-one vote rule applies.

Medicine

In medicine, the term "bilateral" indicates a condition or disease that affects both sides of the body (see also unilateral).

See also

* Multilateralism
* Unilateralism

External links

* [http://www.bilaterals.org/ bilaterals.org] , an activist group that works to oppose bilateral arrangements "that are opening countries to the deepest forms of penetration by transnational corporations."

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Look at other dictionaries:

• bilateralism — bi‧lat‧e‧ral‧is‧m [baɪˈlætrəlɪzm] noun [uncountable] ECONOMICS when trade agreements are negotiated between two countries at a time, rather than a larger number of countries: • He noted the US preference for bilateralism, especially when… …   Financial and business terms

• bilateralism — BILATERALÍSM s.n. Metodă de politică comercială internaţională, care constă în acordul dintre două ţări în privinţa bunurilor şi serviciilor pe care le schimbă între ele. – Bilateral + suf. ism. Trimis de paula, 21.06.2002. Sursa: DEX 98 … …   Dicționar Român

• bilateralism — 1852, from BILATERAL (Cf. bilateral) + ISM (Cf. ism) …   Etymology dictionary

• bilateralism — /baɪ læt(ə)rəlɪz(ə)m/ noun a system whereby a country balances its trade with another ● With luck, bilateralism will put an end to the trade war …   Marketing dictionary in english

• bilateralism — noun see bilateral …   New Collegiate Dictionary

• bilateralism — See bilateral. * * * …   Universalium

• bilateralism — noun a) Having a matching arrangement on each of two sides. b) The policy of having bilateral agreements between two countries (as opposed to unilateralism and multilateralism) …   Wiktionary

• bilateralism — A condition in which the two sides are symmetrical. * * * bi·lat·er·al·ism (bi latґər əl iz əm) bilateral symmetry …   Medical dictionary

• bilateralism — n. two sidedness …   English contemporary dictionary

• bilateralism — bi·lat·er·al·ism …   English syllables