lecture 5 What and why secession? Flashcards
4 Steps of States stopping their expansion in 1945, when a combination of security, ideological, and economic factors began to change the milieu in which states evaluated the costs and benefits of holding territory.
First, the bipolar system (and later the unipolar system) permitted stable collaborations between strong and weak states on an inter-sovereign basis
It also generated an environment in which the superpowers encouraged decolonization and then competed for informal control over the emerging states
Second, the consolidation of the territorial integrity norm dramatically reduced the rate of conquest; reinforced the structural preference for informal control; and, by making states safer from predation, decreased the need to hold large territories.
Third, the advent of the nuclear age changed the security emphasis for lead states from territorial defense to deterrence.
Finally, the development of the liberal global economy reduced the need to possess large economic units. In an era of increasing globalization, small states could survive by plugging in to the global economy to secure capital and resources and leverage their comparative advantage
imposition of ethno federal structures
that creates the conditions for secessionism. Such units generate new identities and new nations; they are states in the making. This is primarily an explanation for how nationalist ambitions arise
Steps of imposition of ethnofederal structures
First, I show how changing international conditions interact with domestic structures to explain trends in state birth.
the first account helps explain where many secessionist movements come from
Second, I shift the focus from the region to the central government to argue that administrative lines and categories are used by metropoles when selecting which regions can secede.
my theory explains why secessionist movements, even ones with a well-developed sense of nation, almost never secede unless they have the appropriate administrative status.
This consideration over metropolitan preferences connects me to a third literature that focuses on the need for central governments to demonstrate resolve to internal secessionists
Why do states want to keep some parts of their country from independence and not others? -> The explanation is that not all movements are the same in the eyes of the relevant parties. I expand on the states-in-the-making literature to argue that large compound states often possess different types of administrative regions. Some are considered more peripheral or more autonomous, and these distinctions can be quite salient and provide the metropole with a means to discriminate between groups.
-> administrative status is v important
What is secession?
’Secession involves at least the withdrawal or detachment of territory and its population from the jurisdiction of an established state … the established state loses the sovereignty or the capacity to exercise its sovereignty over the detached territory’’ (Pavkovic 2012, 655).
Secession process
- Roots of secession: grievance, cultural defence, minority rights, oppression
- Means of secession: political mobilization, civil disobedience, violence
- Secession moments: hard to identify, prolonged
- Success? Two options:
o Constitutive approach: secession is successful when this withdrawal is accorded recognition by the host state and by others in the international community (Hechter, 1992, 267)
o Declaratory approach: statehood antedates recognition (Anderson, 2013, 387)
A state is a state when you just simply declare it - Aftermath:
Secession v decolonization
- For some: decolonization is a separate phenomenon from secession
o Decolonization has a different form in the international community
o The UN allowed decolonization to happen, because there was no traditional conflict with a state denying so therefore it is not really secession
o The salt-water test: only non-self-governing territories separated by ocean, or saltwater, from their administering power would be able to evolve towards self-determination and self-government
This test was used to decide what is a colony or not and then to look at if water separates it
Decolonization is the only acceptable way for a new statehood - For others: decolonization as a type of secession
- For others again: decolonization only secession if it is opposed by the colonizing state (Crawford)
- Decolonization generally seen as an acceptable form of secession – facilitated by the UN
o Rewriting history because they only allow decolonization and the rest they supress
Secessionism v nationalism
’Nationalism is a doctrine of self-determination; that much is agreed. Yet the definition of the group that is entitled to self-determination and the conditions under which these demands are formulated is contested. Further disagreement arises over whether nationalists, to qualify as such, must make a claim to their own state’’ (Keating, 2001, p.1).w
Many form of nationalists:
- State nationalists
- Sub-state nationalist (with varied goals such as devolution, greater regional autonomy)
- Trans/supra-nationalist
- Revolutionary/counter-revolutionary nationalists
- Civic/ethic nationalist
- Violent/non-violent
Why is secession important?
- Ridges internal politics with international system
- Reveals fundamental political dynamics: such as tension between democracy and stability
- Disciplinary: international relations, geography, sociology, politics, anthropology, economics
- Reshapes map of the world and people’s homes, identities and security
Human rights
- Which is more important: ‘’the right of states to maintain their territory, or the right of stateless nations to choose their political fate, even if that means violating the territorial integrity of the larger state?’’ (Griffiths)
- Secession as a remedial right?
o The idea that secession can be used as a remedy for human rights violations
Example: Kosovo wanting secession after Serbia cleansing them - Secession as a primary right?
o No matter if a state was bad, human rights being violated or anything, you have a human right to want secession
o Human rights do not necessarily be violated - Human rights as both cause and consequence of secession
Why is secession important in IR?
- Constant testing of systems of international law and governance
- Challenge and opportunity for states
- A frequent source of conflict and war
- Requires constant reconsideration of the role of the state and distribution of power
