coalition of the willing

The clause coalition of the willing generally refers to a group of allied countries in a military intervention, especially the United States and its allies in the Iraq War. It has existed in the political science/international relations literature at least since UN peacekeeping operations began to run into complications in 1993-94, and alternatives began to be considered. One early use was by President Bill Clinton in June 1994 in relation to possible operations against North Korea, at the height of the 1994 stand-off with that country over nuclear weapons.