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296 australian maritime issues 2009: spc-a annual
However when there is an inequality in power, resources, money, armament, or
technology, there is a tendency for the stronger side to exploit the bilateral diplomacy.
Multilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries
working in concert on a given issue or task. International organisations, such as the
UN and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature. The major supporters
of multilateralism have traditionally been the middle powers such as Canada, Australia
and the Nordic countries. Larger states (such as the United States) often act unilaterally,
while the smaller ones may have little direct power in international affairs aside from
participation in the UN.
Multilateralism is advantageous in certain issues where there are many stakeholders
from various countries and on issues that can only be resolved by many countries
working together. The stories of Franklin Roosevelt during WWII illustrate this point. He
not only built alliances with Great Britain and the Soviet Union to fight the war against
the Axis Powers of Japan and Germany, but he also began to build an organisation of
the major powers that would also bring in the rest of the world’s countries. Roosevelt
understood that the future security of the world would depend on effective cooperation.
Roosevelt’s hope was that an effective Security Council with collective action could
stop aggressors like Hitler and the Japanese from rising again. Roosevelt also saw
that one of the reasons for WWII was that countries failed to cooperate in confronting
Germany and Japan. If the big powers had worked together, they might have prevented
the war altogether. However some argue that ‘large numbers create problems for states
attempting to cooperate. Having many players can increase the conflicts of interest
among them, uncertainty about others’ preferences’. 1 Multilateralism has a very large
impact on global security, as this can only come about through a global organisation.
Countries acting in a strictly unilateral or bilateral sense will tend to have a negative
effect on global cooperation and security.
Recent Naval Bilateral and Multilateral Operations and Their
Benefits
Current naval bilateral and multilateral operations and agreements include: port visits,
fleet reviews, senior personnel visits; multilateral forums and conferences; maritime
information exchange; bilateral or multilateral naval exercises.
Port visits, fleet reviews, senior personnel visits
This is perhaps the most basic of cooperative building blocks. Although these activities
are commonplace between ally countries, they also provide the least controversial
way of cooperation between states with little common political ground and actual or
potential adversaries. The KAKADU ‘fleet concentration period’ hosted by Australia
is a highly successful multilateral naval exercise. In the past Exercise KAKADU has