Summary
Summary IPC2601 - International Organisations Sovereignty
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Summary IPC2601 - International Organisations Sovereignty
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The Concept of SovereigntySovereignty is the central organizing principle of the system of states.
However, it is also one of the most poorly understood concepts in
international relations. This confusion emerges from at least two sources. First,
as will be discussed below, sovereignty is in fact a relatively recent innovation
connected to the emergence of the nation-state as the primary unit of political
organization. Second, what is more, a number of contemporary issues have
placed increasing limits on the exercise of sovereign authority. These two
factors raise questions about the fixity of the concept of sovereignty often
assumed by international relations scholars. A more sophisticated view of
sovereignty now envisions states and nonstate actors as engaged in a continual
process of renegotiating the nature of sovereignty.[1]
At its core, sovereignty is typically taken to mean the possession of absolute
authority within a bounded territorial space. There is essentially an internal
and external dimension of sovereignty. Internally, a sovereign government is a
fixed authority with a settled population that possesses a monopoly on the use
of force. It is the supreme authority within its territory. Externally, sovereignty
is the entry ticket into the society of states. Recognition on the part of other
states helps to ensure territorial integrity and is the entree into participating in
diplomacy and international organizations on an equal footing with other
states.
Historical Development
The international system was not always arranged in terms of sovereign states.
Through the Middle Ages alternative feudal arrangements governed Europe
and city-states lasted up until the modern period. The development of a
system of sovereign states culminated in Europe at the Peace of Westphalia in
1648. This agreement essentially allowed the ruler to determine the religion
, within his borders, but it also represents both the internal and external aspects
of sovereignty. (Internal sovereignty means supreme authority within one's
territory, while external sovereignty relates to the recognition on the part of all
states that each possesses this power in equal measure.) As Europe colonized
much of the rest of the world from the fifteenth through the nineteenth
centuries, the state system spread around the globe. Through this time,
sovereign authority was clearly not extended to non-Europeans. However, the
process of drawing boundaries to clearly demarcate borders would be critical
for defining sovereign states during decolonization.
The second, current, movement appears to be the gradual circumscription of
the sovereign state, which began roughly after World War II and continues to
the present. Much of international law, at least until WWII, was designed to
reinforce sovereignty. However, driven by the horrors of the Nazi genocide and
the lessons of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, the society of states forged
a series of agreements under the auspices of the United Nations that
committed states to protect the human rights of their own citizens, a
restriction on authority whiting the state. The post-war period also saw the
growth of intergovernmental organizations to help govern interstate relations
in areas ranging from trade and monetary policy to security and a host of other
issue areas. At the same time, much of the non-Western world gained their
independence in the decades after World War II, setting up a scenario in which
many of the new states were not fully sovereign.[2] Granting former colonies
independence and recognizing them as sovereign states, they joined
intergovernmental organizations and were ostensibly the equals of European
states. At the same time, there was a general lack of capacity to govern the
state, combined with arbitrarily drawn borders, that left different groups leery
at best in providing a government with supreme authority. Today, sovereignty
is essentially based on borders, not any capacity on the part of governments.
This was adopted because it was the only means for so many colonies to
become independent quickly.[3] Now, sovereignty also entitles developing
states to development assistance.
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