Bilateralism In International Relations

Like bilateral is an adjective that modifies interstate in general and phonologically hints at the number of parties involved. For example, in the realm of diplomatic relations, ‘bilateral diplomacy’ is defined as “the conduct of relations” or “communication limited to two parties at any one time”. The term ‘bilateralism’, however stands for an organizing principle of bilateral conduct and, as postulated in political science literature, appears to have a more implicit meaning on institutional form than just ‘relation involving two states or parties’. As Baumann indicated in the context of multilateralism, bilateralism may carry with it two generic sense first one refer to the pattern of relations among states in international relations while

The politics of ‘new bilateralism’ become leading economic policy trend, a number of countries in the Asia pacific region turned to it in the aftermath of so called ‘trade institution failures’ – especially after multilateral trade negotiations at the WTO slowed down and the IMF crisis management misconduct in the Asian Financial crisis was exposed. In response to these developments in the world economy, it would not be surprising to discover that, in an effort to push trade liberalization forward, a ‘new bilateralism’ has been pursued as an instrument of discriminatory preferential trading arrangement. With regard to the two definitions of bilateralism mention above, the term ‘new bilateralism’ clearly transcends the definition of ‘formal bilateralism’ moving towards a definition of ‘substantive bilateralism’ due to the relevance of the operating principles attached to bilateral free trading arrangements or the principle of specific

The importance of the influence of Indian culture on the development of Thai culture cannot be over emphasized. Thailand’s relationship with India spans over a thousand years and understandably this resulted in an adaptation of Indian culture to suit the Thai environment. Evidence of strong religious, cultural and linguistic links abound.

The single most significant cultural contribution of India, for which Thailand is greatly indebted to India, is 'Buddhism’. Propagated in Thailand in the 3rd Century Buddhism Century (B.C.) by Buddhist monks sent by King Asoka, it was adopted as the state religion of Thailand and has ruled the hearts and minds of Thais ever since. Presently 58,000,000 Thais, an overwhelming 94% of the total Thai populace adheres to Buddhism. Due to King Asoka’s missionary zeal Buddhism quickly spread out through the length and breadth of Asia particularly to China, Japan, Myanmar, Laos, Kampuchea, Vietnam and Thailand. Tradition credits the Indian Bhikkus Sona and Uttara sent by King Asoka with introducing Buddhism into