From Multilateralism to Minilateralism- A Conceptual Paradigm

Abstract

Scholars have always struggled with the dilemma of interdependence in a world where nation-states have been the basic unit of political organization for over two centuries. As the primacy of the states continued and complex powers shift recurred, the initial optimism in a world government has come crashing down. Scholars have since then turned into diplomatic interaction between the states to analyze how they relate to each other and form cooperative international organizations, among them the multilaterals and its new avatar, the minilaterals. Considering that it is not the absence of platforms for the states to relate each other, but their astonishing diversity that concerns us, we must look into efficiency of each one of them and why states have prioritized some above the others.