The term coalition of the willing refers to a temporary international partnership created for the purpose of achieving a particular objective, usually of military or political nature.
[1] The term was coined in the early 1970s by MIT professor Lincoln P. Bloomfield and his colleagues, including Harland Cleveland of the University of Minnesota.
[2] In July 1971, Bloomfield described the need for a coalition of willing nations to support important peacekeeping or conflict stabilization goals endorsed by the UN, in a NYT op-ed.
[2] The term was used by President Bill Clinton in June 1994 in relation to possible operations against North Korea, at the height of the 1994 stand-off with the country over nuclear weapons.
[9][10] In the early 2000s, Hungary’s Ambassador to the U.S. Andras Simonyi formed a charity rock band he named "Coalition of the Willing" with former Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and U.S. officials, including then-Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.[11][12] Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves referred to the partnership of former president of Cuba Fidel Castro, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning and former president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez for the construction of the Argyle International Airport as “the Coalition of the Willing," with a display dedicated to it located at the airport.