International community



The international community is a vague term used in international relations to refer to all the governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them, frequently in the context of calls for the respect of human rights and for action to be taken against repressive regimes.

States may sometimes refer to "the will of the international community" to strengthen their own point of view. It is sometimes claimed that powerful countries and groups of countries use the term to describe organisations 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.

For example, the term is used by some Western leaders when criticising 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 states recognised by the United Nations) has in fact backed Iran's right to enrich uranium.

From a broader view, an individual anywhere in the world, who is interested in international issues could be considered a member of International Community (IC).