International

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For other uses, see International (disambiguation).

International or internationally describes interaction between nations or encompassing several nations. Especially in the United States, "international" is also commonly used to mean "outside of the country."

Global is commonly used nowadays as a synonym for international, but such usage is incorrect. This is because "global" implies "one world" as a single unit, while "international" recognizes that different peoples, cultures, languages, nations, borders, economies, and ecosystems exist. Nonetheless such usage is found in widely-used media buzzwords such as the "Global Economy".

In North American unionised environments, the term International is a euphemism for the central union location, which is often in the Washington, D.C. area. An example is the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers), whose international office is in Washington, DC, whereas its local offices are spread all over North America. A regional union office that serves as an umbrella organisation for more than one local office, may still be called "International" by its rank and file members.

In team sports, "International" commonly refers either to a match between two national teams, or to a player capped by his national team.

In politics, "The International" — such as, the "First International", the "Second International", or the "Socialist International" — may be short for any league of communist, radical, socialist, or union organizations from multiple countries. This is celebrated in The Internationale, a famous Socialist song.

[edit] See also

• List of left-wing internationals
• World community