International Relationship

Since the end of the Cold War, numerous cooperative agreements between nations have demonstrated that international cooperation (IC) is possible. When nations cooperate, they do so on a voluntary basis and are able to abandon agreements at will. Global governance, which is understood here as the institutionalisation of IC, in the ideal case implies regulations aiming to solve global problems through agreement enforcement and accountability of the actors involved. 



This essay argues that IC and global governance in their present form constitute a stepping-stone to a world government.

The most established definition of cooperation in academic literature is the one by Robert Keohane (1984).(1) Keohane assumes a conflictive policy situation at the outset of each cooperative agreement. Policy adjustments are then negotiated to bring agreements more in line with each actor’s preferences. Once both policies become more compatible, the act of cooperation is completed. But does this definition adequately describe IC across all fields? Also, does it describe IC in the 21st century? There is evidence that it does not. The actual meaning of the Latin cooperatio—joint operation—does not require a conflictive policy situation at the outset. Neither does it require a policy adjustment to the preferences of other actors. For a joint operation, it is sufficient that two or more actors operate together using shared resources.(2) Keohane´s definition, written primarily for security issues during the Cold War, no longer seems appropriate for the wide range of IC in the 21st century.(3) Due to its limitations, for this essay IC is redefined as follows: Cooperation occurs when two or more actors are involved in a joint operation with shared resources. This endeavour can be repeated whenever there is a commitment of all actors. The initial purpose of cooperation can transform throughout time, but it can also not lead to anything, or result in the complete opposite intended (cp. Anderson 1999). In some cases, it can trigger new agreements between governments, which may lead to change in international political relations.(4)

Past accomplishments of IC can be demonstrated by looking at several examples. First and foremost is the security cooperation between the United States and the former Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War, which astonished international society. Arms control and disarmament agreements, including the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I, 1991) and the establishment of NATO’s Partnership for Peace (1994), the Russia NATO Council (2002), and the G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (2002), constitute concrete initiatives of arms control and denuclearisation. The U.S.–Russian cooperation was further strengthened by anti-terrorism agreements enacted in the wake of 9/11.(5) Secondly, cooperation on environmental concerns has been prevalent. Virtually all countries, since the early 1990s, have agreed to sell lead-free gasoline and produce and sell catalytically converted cars to reduce pollution from CO2. One of the biggest successes of environmental cooperation has been the agreement to reduce chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) emissions, as specified in the Montreal Protocol (1997), in order to stop ozone depletion. The