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Internationality, or theinternational, is the concept of something involving more than a singlecountry and may suggestinteraction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries. For example,international law, which is applied by more than onecountry and usually everywhere onEarth, andinternational languages spoken by residents of more than one country. "International" is therefore also sometimes used as a synonym for "global".
As theUnited Nations noted in itsYearbook of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law:
[T]here was a well-established tradition at the Hague Conference on Private International Law of not defining internationality. Comparative studies show that at least two concepts of internationality coexist in most countries: a legal concept and an economic concept. The legal concept consists in taking account of either the nationality or the geographical location of the parties concerned. The economic concept relates to the flow of goods, persons, financiers and so forth across borders. According to the latter sense of the term, a relationship qualifies as "international*' if it was entered into by partners located in the same territory but with one of the elements of the relationship to be performed in a different State.[1]
The terminternational is of relatively recent vintage compared to much of theEnglish language. It was coined by theutilitarianphilosopherJeremy Bentham in hisAn Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, which was printed for publication in 1780 and published in 1789, with Bentham writing: "The wordinternational, it must be acknowledged, is a new one; though, it is hoped, sufficiently analogous and intelligible. It is calculated to express, in a more significant way, the branch of law which goes commonly under the name of thelaw of nations.[2][3] The word was adopted in French in 1801.[4]Thomas Erskine Holland noted in his article on Bentham in the 11th edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica that "Many of Bentham's phrases, such as 'international,' 'utilitarian,' 'codification,' are valuable additions to our language; but the majority of them, especially those of Greek derivation, have taken no root in it." In 1825, James Douglas of Cavero used the noun form when he wrote that "[a]n Influence, highly favourable to the Grecian States, consisted in their Internationality".[5]
Theories of internationality have been proposed by academics includingJonathan Rée andMartin Shaw, each of whom propose internationality as a fundamental force shaping modern history and politics, emphasizing its deep entanglement with the formation and function of nation-states. Both argue that national identity does not develop in isolation, but is instead embedded within international structures, shaping and being shaped by transnational political, economic, and ideological currents.[3][6] Both characterize internationality as an historically persistent reality that underlies the evolution of governance, institutions, and cultural identity. Rée critiques nationalism as obscuring international interconnectedness,[3] while Shaw focuses on the national-international structure as a central organizing principle in state-society relations.[6] They differ in that Rée treats nationalism as a largely ideological framework that imposes artificial divisions on a fundamentally international history, whereas Shaw sees the national-international relationship as a structural tension that has historically defined modern governance. Shaw states that:
Internationality is therefore not, as sometimes supposed, the general opposite of nationality. The idea of internationality understands relations between and beyond nations in terms of the national principle. However, in a national-international world, antagonistic international relations reinforce separated nationalities.[6]
The phrase, "The International", is often used to refer to apolitical international, specifically meaning atransnational organization ofpolitical parties having similarideology or political orientation (e.g.communism,socialism, andIslamism).[7] The international works together on points of agreement to co-ordinate activity. Aninternational organization (also known as an "international institution" or an "intergovernmental organization") is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states and other actors in the international system.[8][9] Organizations may be established by atreaty or be an instrument governed byinternational law and possessing its own legal personality, such as theUnited Nations, theWorld Health Organization andNATO.[10][11]
International law, also known as the law of nations and international ethics,[12] is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding betweennations.[13][14] It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for states across a broad range of domains, including war, diplomacy, trade, and human rights. International law aims to promote the practice of stable, consistent, and organized international relations.[15]Public international law andinternational criminal law are particularly important areas.
Thesources of international law includeinternational custom (general state practice accepted as law),treaties, and general principles of law recognized by most national legal systems. International law may also be reflected ininternational comity, the practices and customs adopted by states to maintain good relations and mutual recognition, such as saluting the flag of a foreign ship orenforcing a foreign legal judgment. International law differs from state-basedlegal systems in that it is primarily—though not exclusively—applicable to countries, rather than to individuals, and operates largely through consent, since there is no universally accepted authority to enforce it uponsovereign states. Consequently, states may choose to not abide by international law, and even to break a treaty.[16]
Internationality is also of concern to the arts and sciences. With respect toacademic publishing, internationality has been raised as an issue, with researchers proposing composite indices to systematically quantify the extent to which journals engage contributors, editors, and readership across multiple nations.[17] Another source notes that: "Internationality is, of course, an important attribute for artistic producers, with the world both as playing field and exhibition location".[18]
In linguistics, an international language, orworld language, is one spoken by the people of more than one nation.English,Spanish,French andArabic are considered to be world languages.[19] Ininterlinguistics, international often has to do with languages rather than nations themselves. Aninternational word is one that occurs in more than one language. These words are collected from widely spoken source or control languages, and often used to establish language systems that people can use to communicate internationally, and sometimes for other purposes such as to learn other languages more quickly. The vocabulary ofInterlingua has a particularly wide range, because thecontrol languages of Interlingua were selected to give its words and affixes their maximum geographic scope.[20] In part, the languageIdo is also a product of interlinguistic research.
The concept of internationality in language has been explored in literary studies as a framework for understanding how texts transcend national and linguistic boundaries, as seen in professor Michael Saenger'sInterlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare (2015), which examines how Shakespeare's works reflect and engage with multiple languages and cultures beyond England.[21] Saenger writes that internationality takes the interlinguistic concept of people speaking multiple languages in a city and extends it to the idea of nations, noting that "the Renaissance plays so often begin in foreign places, and those introductory scenes often lead to still more and more new locations. That mobility was a key pleasure that the theater sold, and it meant that audiences could never be sure precisely where they were". This iteration of internationality "could be seen as a pervasive characteristic of early modern social space, made particularly evident in the theater".[21]
