Crises and Diplomacy

Abstract

An international crisis is a condition of extremely bad relations between two or more states, so bad in fact that the outbreak of war between them cannot be ruled out. It is the more serious for the world if the antagonists are major powers, and the more serious still if they are members of different alliance systems. Crises may develop slowly (as between China and the Soviet Union in 1969) but are generally provoked by a sudden move by one party that is regarded as damaging or at least seriously threatening to a vital interest of another. In such circumstances routine disintegrates, top-level policy-makers go into virtually permanent secret conclave with their chiefs of staff, emergency sessions of the UN Security Council are demanded, ambassadors are recalled ‘for consultation’, military forces are placed on a high state of alert, press management is tightened to the point of strangulation, and propaganda exchanges become vitriolic. In the cold war (see Chapter 1) famous crises occurred over Berlin, Cuba and Afghanistan, and more recently a major crisis was prompted by the sudden invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces in August 1990.