{{Refimprove, date=December 2011 An international incident (or diplomatic incident) is a seemingly relatively small or limited action, incident or clash that results in a wider dispute between two or more nation-states. International incidents can arise from unanticipated actions involving citizens, government officials, or armed units of one or more nation-states, or out of a deliberate but small provocative action by espionage agents of one nation-state, or by terrorists, against another nation-state. An international incident usually arises during a time of relative peace between nation-states, and in general is, on the surface, an unexpected event. Conflicts that grow out of a series of escalating skirmishes between nation-states generally are not considered international incidents; however, terrorist actions can and often do become international incidents. However, historical views of past international incidents often reveal the incident was the flashpoint of a simmering conflict between nation-states, or organizations opposing nation-states. Wars have often been provoked by international incidents, and

diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

efforts to prevent international incidents from growing into full-scale armed conflicts often have been unsuccessful. In the aftermath of the First World War, the League of Nations was established to help nations who were parties to an international incident achieve a solution to the incident through diplomatic means. Initially, the League of Nations had some success in working to find diplomatic solutions, however the failure of the League of Nations to prevent World War II resulted in the disbandment of the League of Nations in favor of the United Nations. As with its predecessor, the United Nations provides a means by which nations involved in an international incident can work to resolve the matter diplomatically rather than through the use of force. The term is also applied to various incidents that can disrupt international commerce, and to celebrities or other well-known people who commit gaffes or otherwise act inappropriately, causing the press and sometimes governments to criticize their actions. The International Court of Justice keeps a list of legal disputes between nation-states, many of which result from international incidents. The

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of the United Kingdom keeps a list on its website of current international incidents that might disrupt mail service.International Incident Bulletin
Royal Mail. Retrieved March 12, 2018. The incidents listed may or may not conform to the definitions given above.

Examples of international incidents

18th century

* Battle of Jumonville Glen (1754) *Hanging of

Joshua Huddy Joshua "Jack" Huddy (November 8, 1735April 12, 1782) was a captain in the Monmouth militia and of the privateer ship ''The Black Snake'' during the American Revolutionary War. Following his capture, Huddy was controversially executed by irregular ...

(1782) * XYZ affair (1797-1798)

19th century

* Caroline Affair, which had a great effect on the development of international law (1837-1842) * ''Trent'' affair (1861) * María Luz Incident (1872) * Fashoda Incident, encounter of British and French forces whilst the countries vied for imperial influence in Africa (1898)

20th century

* Dogger Bank incident - Russian ships mistook a British trawler fleet with the Japanese Fleet (1904) * Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand - Set off the First World War (1914) * Tampico Affair (1914) * Sinking of the RMS Lusitania - Moved the USA closer to WW1 involvement (1917) * Zimmermann Telegram - Proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico in WW1 (1917) * Bodyline Ashes (1932-33) * USS ''Panay'' incident (1937) * Tientsin incident (1939) * Gleiwitz incident - False-flag attack by Germany on itself, justifying World War 2 invasion (1939) * Zoot Suit Riots - Naval pogrom against Mexican-Americans that resulted in a formal complaint from the Mexican government (1943) * Amethyst Incident (1949) * Lavon Affair (1954) * Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *

U-2 Crisis of 1960 On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory. The single-seat aircraft, flown by American pilot Francis Gary Power ...

*Erection of

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

(1961) *

Gulf of Tonkin Incident The Gulf of Tonkin incident ( vi, Sự kiện Vịnh Bắc Bộ) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out b ...

(1964) * USS ''Liberty'' incident (1967) * USS ''Pueblo'' incident (1968) *

Dagmar Hagelin Dagmar Hagelin (29 September 1959 - disappeared on 27 January 1977) was a 17-year-old Swedes, Swedish-Argentine girl who disappeared during the Dirty War on 27 January 1977, and is presumed to have been arrested by security forces in El Palomar, B ...

(1977) * Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981) *'' Yinhe'' incident (1993) *

Korean Air Flight 007 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)The flight number KAL 007 was used by air traffic control, while the public flight booking system used KE 007 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Al ...

(1983) *The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (1985) *

1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing On 5 April 1986, three people were killed and 229 injured when ''La Belle'' discothèque was bombed in the Friedenau district of West Berlin. The entertainment venue was commonly frequented by United States soldiers, and two of the dead and 79 ...

* USS Stark incident (1987) *Shooting-down of Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 *

Pan Am Flight 103 Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boeing ...

(1988) * Cavalese cable car disaster (1998) * United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (1999) * Elián González (1999)

21st century

* Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision (2001) *9/11 (2001) * Hainan Island incident (2001) * The May 2006 execution in Texas of Mexican national

Jesús Ledesma Aguilar Jesús Ledesma Aguilar (November 28, 1963 – May 24, 2006) was a Mexican national who became the 365th person executed by the U.S. state of Texas. His execution sparked an international incident between the United States and Mexico, which led to ...

* The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London (2006) *

2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel On 23 March 2007, fifteen Royal Navy personnel from were searching a merchant vessel when they were surrounded by the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and detained off the Iran–Iraq coast. In the course of events, British forces cl ...

*'' ¿Por qué no te callas?'', response given by King Juan Carlos I of Spain to

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

, president of Venezuela, at the 2007 Ibero-American Summit (Santiago, Chile) *

ROKS Cheonan sinking The ROKS ''Cheonan'' sinking occurred on 26 March 2010, when , a of the Republic of Korea Navy, carrying 104 personnel, sank off the country's west coast near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 seamen. The cause of the sinking ...

(2010) * Gaza flotilla raid (2010) *

2010 Israel–Lebanon border clash The 2010 Israel–Lebanon border clash occurred on August 3, 2010, between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Israel Defense Forces (IDF), after an IDF team attempted to cut down a tree on the Israeli side of the Blue Line, near the Israeli ...

* Shelling of Yeonpyeong (2010) * 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan (2011) * 2012 Italian shooting of unarmed Indian fishermen in the Arabian sea * Scarborough Shoal standoff (2012) * Retention of the Argentinian frigate Libertad in Ghana (2012) * Devyani Khobragade incident (2013) *

2013 Lahad Datu standoff The 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, also known as the Lahad Datu incursion or Operation Daulat ( ms, Operasi Daulat), was a military conflict in Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia, that started on 11 February 2013, lasting until 24 March 2013. The ...

*The shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014) * Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 (2016) * Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal (2018) * Killing of Jamal Khashoggi (2018) * Kerch Strait incident (2018) * Carlos Ghosn securities scandal (2018) *

2019 El Paso shooting On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. In the terrorist attack, a far-right individual killed 23 people and injured 23 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the sh ...

2019 Bolivian political crisis A political crisis occurred in Bolivia on 10 November 2019, after 21 days of civil protests following the disputed 2019 Bolivian general election in which incumbent President Evo Morales was initially declared the winner. The elections took pl ...

2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike On 3 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was killed by a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. The drone targeted and killed Soleimani while he was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi i ...

* Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (2020) *

2021 Suez Canal obstruction In March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days after the grounding of , a container ship. The vessel was buffeted by strong winds on the morning of 23 March, and ended up wedged across the waterway with its bow and stern stuck in the ...

* Ryanair Flight 4978 and the arrest of Roman Protasevich (2021) * AUKUS (2021) * Novak Djokovic COVID-19 scandal (2022)

References

External links

List of cases brought before the International Court of Justice since 1946

Royal Mail International Incident list