{{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 A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than " country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, m ...

. 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 Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...

agents of one nation-state, or by

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, against another nation-state. An international incident usually arises during a time of relative

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

between nation-states, and in general is, on the surface, an unexpected event. Conflicts that grow out of a series of escalating

skirmish Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...

es between nation-states generally are not considered international incidents; however,

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

resulted in the disbandment of the League of Nations in favor of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

. 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 Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, natio ...

, and to

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

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 The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordan ...

keeps a list of legal disputes between nation-states, many of which result from international incidents. The

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

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 The Battle of Jumonville Glen, also known as the Jumonville affair, was the opening battle of the French and Indian War, fought on May 28, 1754, near present-day Hopwood and Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. A company of provincial ...

(1754) *Hanging of Joshua Huddy (1782) *

XYZ affair The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the presidency of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to the Quasi-War. The name derives from the subs ...

(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 Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

(1872) *

Fashoda Incident The Fashoda Incident, also known as the Fashoda Crisis (French: ''Crise de Fachoda''), was an international incident and the climax of imperialist territorial disputes between Britain and France in East Africa, occurring in 1898. A French exped ...

, encounter of British and French forces whilst the countries vied for imperial influence in Africa (1898)

20th century

Dogger Bank incident The Dogger Bank incident (also known as the North Sea Incident, the Russian Outrage or the Incident of Hull) occurred on the night of 21/22 October 1904, when the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy mistook a British trawler fleet from ...

- Russian ships mistook a British trawler fleet with the Japanese Fleet (1904) *

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range whil ...

- Set off the

(1914) *

Tampico Affair The Tampico Affair began as a minor incident involving U.S. Navy sailors and the Mexican Federal Army loyal to Mexican dictator General Victoriano Huerta. On April 9, 1914, nine sailors had come ashore to secure supplies and were detained by M ...

(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 The Gleiwitz incident (german: Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz; ) was a false flag attack on the radio station ''Sender Gleiwitz'' in Gleiwitz (then Germany and now Gliwice, Poland) staged by Nazi Germany on the night of 31 August 1939. Along ...

- 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 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

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 Powe ...

*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 gover ...

(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 (1977) *

Iran Hostage Crisis On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over ...

(1979-1981) *'' Yinhe'' incident (1993) * Korean Air Flight 007 (1983) *The

sinking of the Rainbow Warrior The sinking of ''Rainbow Warrior'', codenamed Opération Satanique, was a bombing operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence agency, the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), carried out on 10 July 1985. D ...

(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 7 ...

USS Stark incident The USS ''Stark'' incident occurred during the Iran–Iraq War on 17 May 1987, when an Iraqi jet aircraft fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate . A total of 37 United States Navy personnel were killed or later died as a result of t ...

(1987) *Shooting-down of

Iran Air Flight 655 Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3July 1988 by two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired by the , a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, ...

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 Boein ...

(1988) *

Cavalese cable car disaster (1998) The Cavalese cable car crash, also known as the Cermis massacre ( it, Strage del Cermis), occurred on February 3, 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites some northeast of Trento. Twenty people were killed when a ...

United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade On May 7, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force), five U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition guided bombs hit the People's Republic of China embassy in the Belgrade district of New Belgrade, killing three Chinese stat ...

(1999) *

Elián González Elián González Brotons (born December 6, 1993) is a Cuban technician who, as a child, became embroiled in a heated international custody and immigration controversy in 2000 involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, his father Ju ...

(1999)

21st century

* Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision (2001) *9/11 (2001) *

Hainan Island incident The Hainan Island incident occurred on April 1, 2001, when a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in an inte ...

(2001) * The May 2006 execution in Texas of Mexican national Jesús Ledesma Aguilar * The

poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko A poison can be any substance that is harmful to the body. It can be swallowed, inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning is the harmful effect that occurs when too much of that substance has been taken. Poisoning is not to ...

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? (; English: "Why don't you shut up?") is a phrase that was uttered by King Juan Carlos I of Spain to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, at the 2007 Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, when Chávez was repeatedly interrupting Spanish Prime ...

'', response given by King Juan Carlos I of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

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 Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, at the 2007

Ibero-American Summit The Ibero-American Summit, formally the Ibero-American Conference of Heads of State and Governments ( es, Cumbres Iberoamericanas de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno, pt, Cimeiras (or Cúpulas) Ibero-Americanas de Chefes de Estado e de Governo), is ...

(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 sinki ...

(2010) *

Gaza flotilla raid The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six civilian ships of the " Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine activists and no Israelis were killed on one ship dur ...

(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 ki ...

Shelling of Yeonpyeong Shelling may refer to: * Shell (projectile), explosive used in wars * Searching for seashells * Shelling (topology) * Wheelset deformation, that occur when the wheel has been worn out * Shelling (fishing), a fishing strategy used by dolphins. ...

(2010) *

2011 NATO attack in Pakistan The 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan (also known as the Salala incident, Salala attack or 26/11 attacks) was a border skirmish that occurred when United States-led NATO forces engaged Pakistani security forces at two Pakistani military checkpo ...

(2011) * 2012 Italian shooting of unarmed Indian fishermen in the Arabian sea *

Scarborough Shoal standoff The Scarborough Shoal standoff refers to the tensions between the Republic of the Philippines and the People's Republic of China over the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Tensions began on April 8, 2012, after the attempted apprehension by the Phili ...

(2012) * Retention of the Argentinian frigate Libertad in Ghana (2012) *

Devyani Khobragade incident On December 11, 2013, Devyani Khobragade, then the Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of India in New York City, was charged by U.S. authorities with committing visa fraud and providing false statements in order to gain entry to the ...

(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. Th ...

*The shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014) * Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 (2016) *

Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in the city of Salisbury, England. According to UK sources and the Organi ...

(2018) *

Killing of Jamal Khashoggi On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist was assassinated by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi assassins. His body ...

(2018) *

Kerch Strait incident The Kerch Strait incident was an international incident that occurred on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait, during which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they ...

(2018) *

Carlos Ghosn Carlos Ghosn (; ; ar, كارلوس غصن; , born 9 March 1954) is a businessman who holds Brazilian and French nationality. Ghosn was the CEO of Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Ni ...

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 *

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752/AUI752) was a scheduled international civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines. On 8January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 flying the route was shot dow ...

(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 th ...

Ryanair Flight 4978 Ryanair Flight 4978 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Athens International Airport, Greece, to Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, operated by the Polish subsidiary Buzz. On 23 May 2021, while in Belarusian airspace, it was ...

and the arrest of

Roman Protasevich Roman Dmitriyevich Protasevich (russian: Роман Дмитриевич Протасевич; born 5 May 1995), or Raman Dzmitryyevich Pratasyevich ( be, Раман Дзмітрыевіч Пратасевіч, translit=Raman Dzmitryjevič Prat ...

(2021) *

AUKUS AUKUS (, ) is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered ...

(2021) *

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. ...

COVID-19 scandal (2022)

References

External links

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

Royal Mail International Incident list

Examples of international incidents

18th century

19th century

20th century

21st century

See also

References

External links