Third world sovereignty, indigenous sovereignty, and food sovereignty: living with sovereignty despite the map

Abstract

ABSTRACTSovereignty remains a theoretically unclear and politically problematic concept. I find some promise, however, in a practice of sovereignty that operates in spite of lines on a map. My study draws from a mix of personal narrative, historical study, doctrinal analysis, and institutional mapping. I examine sovereignty with one foot in Beirut and the other in Bandung; from this postcolonial and transnational setting, I run into a political and conceptual dead-end. I therefore look to two cases that I argue exemplify a practice of sovereignty worth supporting and replicating. The Inuit technique of geographical reframing through international doctrine and institutions is innovative and potentially something others can try. The food sovereignty movement highlights that power stems from social organising and change will not come from theoretical elegance. What these struggles confirm is that any understanding of change in international law must address the question of solidarity as a central concern.