From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term "international community" is a political phrase that can refer to either:

• All the lands represented in United Nations.
• The people of the lands all over the world.
• Shared values and principles among the primary actors within an international system.

The international community is regulated by the international law created by the international treaties.

Contents 1 History 2 Usage of the expression 3 Notes 4 See also

Usage of the term began in the 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1950s, political cartoons used a picture of a man, often wearing a hat, whose head was a globe. This figure was labelled "The World"^{[citation needed]}.

It has been claimed that the superpower nations (now mainly the United States, although China and Russia are both capable of intercontinental force projection) use the term to describe organizations in which they play a predominant role, regardless of the opinion of other nations. For example, the Kosovo War was described as an action of the "international community" even though it was undertaken by NATO, which represented under ten percent of the world's population during the Kosovo War, this including Italy and Greece who were in opposition to the involvements.

Similarly, "international community" is being used by some Western leaders when criticizing Iran for its nuclear ambitions by saying that "Iran is defying the will of the international community by continuing uranium enrichment". The league of non-aligned nations (122 countries out of 193 recognised governments by both the USA and the UK, well over 50%) has in fact backed Iran's right to uranium enrichment. In this case, those countries do not form a part of the "international community".

• Sources of international law
• List of community topics

• Internationalism (politics)
• World community