International isolation

International isolation is a penalty applied by the international community or a sizeable or powerful group of countries, like the United Nations, towards one nation, government or people group. The same term may also refer to the state a country finds itself in after being shunned by the international community of nations or the greater group of countries. The determinants of the greater group of countries rely on economic, political and cultural stability but since the global order is constantly changing with the rise of developing countries such grouping may change.

International isolation is often the result of international sanctions against a specific country (or group of countries), but it may also be a result of a policy of isolationism by the country in question. Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, for example, ended up in a state of international isolation after decades of confrontation with the West and its critical politics against fellow Arab governments.

Countries which have seceded from another state may find themselves under international isolation, like Abkhazia, which is only recognized by a handful of countries after breaking away from Georgia with the help of the Russian military. Northern Cyprus, the northern section of the island of Cyprus, finds itself in a similar situation. Usually such states and their interests are protected by a larger neighbour.

Certain widely acknowledged terms or concepts, like "Pariah state", have been coined to refer to countries that have isolated themselves internationally or have been isolated by sizeable groups of nations. The characteristics of such a state are "...precarious diplomatic isolation, the absence of assured, credible security support or political moorings within big-power alliance structures, and ... [being] the targets of obsessive and unrelenting opprobrium and censure within international forums such as the United Nations." One such State was the People's Republic of Kampuchea after 1979, when both the People's Republic of China and the United States pushed for its isolation in the international arena, after not having approved of the Vietnamese invasion to ouster the Khmer Rouge. Another example is when countries fail to comply with or drop out of international agreements. Canada's pull out of the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gases in 2011 is such an example.

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