国际是一个非常常见的政治用语。它的直接的意思是“国家之间的”的意思。国际这个词是一个在近代产生的比较新的政治名词。

杰里米·边沁于1789年首次使用了国际这个词。今天这个词主要有以下三个意义：

最近国际与“洲际”和“全球”等概念之间的差别逐渐减小。

另一个容易与国际混淆的概念是跨国。跨国是指一个同时在亚国家、国家和国际范畴内存在的事物，比如跨国公司或者跨国民间组织等。

International mostly means something (a company, language, or organization) involving more than a single country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country and usually everywhere on Earth, and international language which is a language spoken by residents of more than one country.