Essay
Essay State sovereignty - International Relations
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This essay is about the possible erosion or transformation of state sovereignty for the course international relations.
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Is statesovereignty
24-3-2017
being eroded or
transformed? In
what way?
International Relations: Week 1,
question 5
Ms. Anghel
The Hague university
Word count: 1010 words
, This paper will address the question of whether state sovereignty is being eroded or
transformed and if so in what way? First this paper will explain what exactly state sovereignty
is, then it continues in telling how sovereignty has already changed. Then this paper will
explain how globalization effects sovereignty and finally the paper will outline that state
sovereignty is indeed being transformed.
State sovereignty, what exactly is meant by it? According to Heywood, sovereignty is power.
For states this means that their power is their place in the world order. The state has the
power to act. (Heywood, 2015) Is the state sovereignty being eroded or transformed? This
paper argues that the term ‘eroded’ means that state sovereignty does not change whilst with
the term ‘transformed’ state sovereignty changes or adapts. Henkin and Sassen argue that
sovereignty has already changed immensely. Sovereignty started as a kind power the ruler
of that territory held over its subjects. (Henkin, 1999) (Sassen, 1996) Sovereignty had some
key elements according to Henkin “Primarily, it meant political independence. It also meant
territorial integrity and virtually exclusive control and jurisdiction within that territory. By
extension, we also developed the concept of nationality.” (Henkin, 1999) Henkin thus argues
that sovereignty is a power and is held to certain criteria, or at least used to be. However
after the two world wars the definition started to change. Henkin argues that sovereignty got
a different definition, it now meant leave each other alone and don’t start a war or use force.
Sovereignty had thus changed significantly, The UN had declared war illegal and by
accepting that the states accepted to give up part of their sovereignty, they gave up their
right to go to war. At the end of the twentieth century another significant change happened.
States wanted to cooperate with each other, they signed treaties and allowed others to judge
what was happening in their own state. The judging or assessing done by human rights
organizations, the UN, the EU and other international organizations could only be done when
states accepted or allowed this. By allowing it they might have given up a part of their
sovereignty but it still was their own choice and therefor the sovereignty of a state has not
been harmed. (Henkin, 1999)
Sovereignty has changed, the world wars had a large impact on it. Henkin argued that states
had given up a large part of their sovereignty. This paper has conceived Henkin’s opinion as
following: the two world wars and its consequences led to an erosion of sovereignty however
it also speaks of transformation. Henkin gave a clear image of how sovereignty has changed
due to the two world wars. However one must also account to the fact that globalization has
a large factor in the change of sovereignty. Next this paper will explains some differing views
on globalization and sovereignty.
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