ABSTRACT
Crisis is the term used to describe a particular type of international interaction between states. It constitutes an identifiable pattern of interaction with particular characteristics such that all crises between states will show the same structure, similar processes and behaviours. The implication is that it is a category of inter-state behaviour and that though each crisis is unique in the ultimate sense, in that each will occur within its own historical and structural context, all crises show sufficiently similar characteristics to be recognised as belonging to a distinct type of phenomenon.
