State Sovereignty Research Articles

Maps, Flags, and Security in the Indo-Pacific: Reframing China’s Influence in Africa

ABSTRACT Maps with flags have securitized China’s actions in Africa. This article combines spatial and cartographic analysis with securitization theory to test the role played by visual symbols in the securitization of the East African space and then compares this with on-the-ground realities. It finds that maps with flags have decisively securitized China’s presence and actions in East Africa for state actors with antithetical interests. Despite valid security concerns, securitizing China in East Africa conflates presence with hegemony and, thus, willfully ignores the sovereignty and agency of African states and peoples and simplifies East Africa to a zone on the map of great power contestation.

The migration phenomenon in the context of the principle of state sovereignty: selected issues

The migration phenomenon in the context of the principle of state sovereignty: selected issues

French Foreign Policy Shifts in a Multi-dimensional Perspective: The Impact and Consequences of Populism

French foreign policy has played an important role in global politics in history. As one of the core countries in Europe, France's diplomatic decisions not only affect its own interests, but also have a far-reaching impact on the political landscape of Europe and even the world. In the past few decades, the process of globalization, regional conflicts, EU internal dynamics and other factors have continuously reshaped France's diplomatic strategy. In recent years, the rise of populism has been particularly eye-catching. It not only triggered great changes in domestic politics, but also had a far-reaching impact on France's foreign policy. As a political phenomenon, populism is usually characterized by anti-elite, anti-dism and an emphasis on national sovereignty and the will of the people. In France, the rise of populism is reflected not only in the words and deeds of politicians and political parties, but also in the attitude and voting behavior of voters. The impact of populism on French foreign policy is mainly reflected in its attitude towards the European Union, its position on immigration and refugee issues, and its attitude towards international cooperation and multilateralism. This article aims to explore the foreign policy transformation of France under the influence of populism from a multidimensional perspective and analyze the consequences of this change. By comparing France's diplomatic strategies in different historical periods, people can more clearly understand the role of populism in it and its potential impact on future international relations.

Beyond Borders : Addressing the Legal Quagmire of Jurisdiction in Cyberspace

This article delves into the complex scenario of governing cyberspace, addressing key issues such as accessibility, digital disparities, and the regulatory challenges posed by cross-border activities, and applicable test by judiciary across the globe while resolving such emerging issues. Despite technological progress, cyberspace largely remains an unregulated realm, creating opportunities for cybercrimes such as stalking, data breaches, exploitation of minors, and hacking. The lack of a cohesive global governance structure makes tackling these issues a formidable task. The article offers a critical assessment of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the sole international treaty on cybercrimes, pointing to its limited acceptance, especially among ASEAN nations. This hesitation underscores an ideological rift: some countries prioritize cyber sovereignty, while others support a multi-stakeholder model that incorporates contributions from governments, private enterprises, and civil society. These divergent views present barriers to legal harmonization and obstruct cross-border collaboration in prosecuting cyber offenders and ensuring data protection. To address these multifaceted challenges, the article suggests a layered governance approach, integrating global frameworks with regional alliances and national strategies. This model encourages international cooperation while respecting national sovereignty, emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships to bolster cybersecurity. Furthermore, it advocates for investments in digital infrastructure and cyber literacy programs to reduce the digital divide, facilitating broader, fairer access to online spaces. Ultimately, the proposed governance model seeks a balanced approach, safeguarding individual rights alongside the imperatives of security and accountability, and aiming to cultivate a cyberspace that is safer, more inclusive, and subject to responsible oversight.

Ensuring coherence between China’s “Belt and Road” initiative and Eurasian Economic Union Project

The article examines the transport development of the intracontinental spaces of Eurasia and their interrelations with the Belt and Road initiative and the activities of the EAEU in infrastructure construction. The emergence of the Initiative is due to several large-scale global economic processes, such as the shift of the center of world production to Asia, China’s leading role in the global economy, its desire to form a different, more equitable model of world economic relations, the growth of geopolitical, transport and economic dynamics of intra-continental events. The central element of the Initiative is China’s willingness to finance local infrastructure projects in which there is a common interest. The integration project is focused on the state sovereignty of the participating countries, the transformation of the EAEU into a dynamically developing region of Eurasia, and the economic attraction for third countries. The EAEU sees the creation of a modern communications infrastructure (the Eurasian transport framework) as the main prerequisite for achieving these objectives. One of the important results of the conjugation of the mega-project and the activities of the EAEU has been a multiple increase in trade and transport communications between China and the EAEU countries. The implemented, ongoing and recommended projects of international transport corridors ensure the permissive effect of intra-continentality and a wider use of the advantages of the Central Eurasia position for the development of the countries of Central Asia, Western China and the Siberian regions of Russia.

Integrated Theatre Command: Strategic Synergy between the Armed Forces of India

The changing dynamics of the modern warfare, advancement of critical and emerging technology, changing geopolitical scenario and political instability in the neighboring countries, for example, the situations in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Further, the evolving multidimensional security challenges from multiple fronts such as the border dispute with Pakistan and China, standoffs in India-China borders, presence of Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean Region, Geo-Political influence of China in Maldives’s Government and Sri Lankan Government are posing significant threat to the India’s National Security, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity. To address these security challenges and potential threat from multiple fronts such as Land, Air, Surface water, Underwater, Space and Cyber, an integrated approach is needed for effectively countering the multidimensional security challenges emerging from multiple fronts in multi domains. Therefore, an integration of armed forces and strategic synergy between the armed forces of India is paramount important for India’s National Security and Interest. This gives special impetus towards the creation of an Integrated Theatre Command in India. Further, an integrated Theatre Command is crucial for tackling the multidimensional defence challenges in future.

Human Rights Violations: The Entry Point for International Troops into Papua

This research explores human rights violations in Papua, focusing on the feasibility of international troop deployment as an intervention strategy against a backdrop of severe abuses such as extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests documented by organizations such as Amnesty International. The study aims to assess the potential role of international troops in safeguarding human rights and maintaining peace, using a qualitative methodology to analyze secondary data from human rights organizations and governmental sources to identify trends and challenges. The main contributions include highlighting gaps in existing interventions, proposing a conceptual framework for international troop deployment that considers legal, political, and ethical dimensions, and contextualizing issues of state sovereignty and regional diplomacy within the ASEAN framework. Specific findings indicate that while international troop deployment could enhance civilian protection and accountability, it faces significant barriers, including legal constraints related to international law, political resistance from local authorities and neighboring states, and ethical concerns such as the risk of escalating violence and undermining local governance. The study concludes by suggesting a balanced approach emphasizing dialogue, sustainable development, and cooperation within ASEAN to address human rights issues in Papua effectively.

Calculating ‘climate migrants’: An emerging topology of power

On what basis can it be said that climate change contributes to human migration? What are we to make of new statistical models used to construct the relationship between these two epochal phenomena? This article proposes Collier’s conception of topology to characterize the novel politics of gravity modelling, a technique increasingly used to calculate numeric estimates of ‘climate migrants’. These models do not simply signify a revival or repetition of political sovereignty, nor an affirmation of biopower, but a novel recalibration of power arising in response to the climate crisis. This recalibration signals the early stages of a new topology of power organized around intuitive calculation. To make this claim, the article draws on recent discussions in geography on the relationship between calculation, number and the political to first situate the models within contemporary critical scholarship on climate change and migration. It then examines the models’ statistical logics, in particular how intuition, inference and the incalculable shape three facets of this emerging topology: the correlation of Earth science data with population-level economic data; the calculation of mobile populations; and the unique spatiality at stake in gravity modelling.

Intrinsic value, sovereignty rights, and sentient animals in Antarctica

ABSTRACT Two things central to the Antarctic Treaty System fill the minds of ethicists and political theorists the more often they reflect upon them: territorial sovereignty (AT, IV.2) and the intrinsic value of Antarctica (Protocol, art.3). Regarding its intrinsic value, in the first half of the paper I argue that to give adequate consideration to the different morally significant constituent parts of Antarctica, it is necessary to recognise sentient animals as a fundamental source of intrinsic value. In the second part of the paper, I look at the implications this interpretation would have particularly, but not only, for those States with sovereignty claims over the continent. The conclusion I draw is twofold. On the one hand, State sovereignty in Antarctica would have to become conditional to acting on the continent in ways that are consistent with the respect owed to wild sentient animals. On the other hand, claimant States and State parties would be required to revisit and amend domestic policies that generate direct harm or unreasonable risk to wild animals in the white continent, even when performed far away from Antarctica.

“Humanitarian Intervention” Concept in Crises Conditions Facing the International Community: Principles, Objective, Achievements

The humanitarian intervention concept has undergone great changes last decades, especially with disappearance of the “classical” East-West confrontation which prevents this concept implementation in practice in the pressing need context to ensure minimum functioning of the rule of law main institutions. This tendency is dictated by several factors, not only the legal nature but largely psychological, sociological and ultimately humanistic. Experts in international human rights law have noted and continue to emphasize that international law is reoriented to the natural person interest, often to the detriment of the states interests thereby influencing the very institution of international law subjects. However, the legal argumentation of the humanitarian intervention is closely related to the system functionality interpretation of international law principles, the topic that is traditionally debated between the adherents of classical “state sovereignty” and human rights concept in one form or another supranational.

‘The Shipwreck of the Turks’: Sovereignty, Barbarism and Civilization in the Legal Order of the Eighteenth-Century Mediterranean

Abstract This article focuses on the consequences of a single major international affair — the shipwreck of a French ship carrying 165 Muslim pilgrims along the southern shores of Sicily in 1716 — to address two pivotal issues in the reordering of eighteenth-­century legal and political systems: the limits of domestic sovereignty in absolutist states and the status of non-Christian polities in the theory and practice of the law of nations. Both the time and place of this episode, which had a vast resonance at the time, have broad implications for how we write about the development of modern international law. While much of the debate on the maritime dimension of the eighteenth-century law of nations focuses on the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, we spotlight the Mediterranean, where endemic corsairing activities coexisted with age-old diplomatic and day-to-day practices of accommodation and mutual recognition between Christian and Muslim polities. Here we draw attention to shipwrecks that occurred in foreign territorial waters and their heuristic potential for better understanding controversial issues of maritime law, such as the status of shorelines, neutrality and the law of the flag. Even after the Peace of Utrecht (1713–15), which is often regarded as a watershed moment in the history of international law, these rules were far from settled and shipwrecks continued to fuel legal and philosophical battles that extended well beyond the confines of the famous controversy between supporters of mare liberum and advocates of mare clausum. The close examination of the 1716 shipwreck leads us to challenge the land/sea divide as constructed by Carl Schmitt and demonstrate that territorial waters were objects of sovereign disputes in much the same way as land territories. We also show how the emerging Eurocentric discourse about the ‘barbarity’ of non-Christian peoples and nations coexisted with intellectual, economic and diplomatic forces interested in establishing formal agreements between Western European nations, the Ottoman Empire and its North African provinces.

Re-Viewing Sumitro’s Policy and Industrial Maturity: Powering Downstream and Manufacturing Industries for Economic Growth and Sustainable Society

During the 1950s, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo contributed in a significant manner to the construction of the economy of Indonesia, along with other figures, namely Mohammad Hatta, Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, and Djuanda Kartawidjaja. During this period, Sumitro promoted policies to drive industrialization in Indonesia and self-reliance to transform Indonesia from a colonial economy into a developing nation. Soemitro Djojohadikusumo’s economic policies were pivotal in shaping Indonesia’s post-colonial economy; focusing on production and industrial sovereignty, he emphasized reducing dependency on imports by fostering domestic industries, especially strategic sectors like heavy industry and natural resource processing, which he saw as crucial to national sovereignty. Soemitro also promoted stimulating economic activities through both public investment and private sector engagement, aiming to diversify the economy and drive sustained growth. Many of the challenges Soemitro addressed, such as infrastructural gaps and weak technological readiness, which remain relevant today. This research analyzes to what extent the economic policy shaped by Sumitro impacts Indonesia’s development. This analysis has significance in understanding Indonesia’s contemporary economic planning and trends, particularly in terms of economic policy shaped by the newly elected President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto. Analysis of Sumitro’s policy is conducted through the lenses of the industrial maturity concept, which is relevant to growth theory, resource-based view, and development economics. Indonesia’s pursuit of industrial maturity is crucial for transforming its raw resource-based economy into one that competes globally by adding value to domestic production. The need to revitalize manufacturing and strengthen downstream industries is critical for boosting competitiveness and integrating circular economic principles that emphasize sustainability. Soemitro’s vision of empowering society aligns with modern approaches to creating a more inclusive economy. However, infrastructure bottlenecks, a lagging education system, and regulatory complexities continue to slow the progress. Addressing supply chain challenges through regional industrial clustering and focusing on efficiency will be vital for overcoming these barriers. Further empirical research is needed to explore how infrastructure, education reform, and regulatory simplification can enhance Indonesia’s industrial maturity and sustainable economic development.

Dying for What? Secular Transformations of Martyrdom

This article studies different forms of martyrdom in secular contexts, tracing their roots back to Western European Christian traditions. The article argues that distinct trajectories of martyrdom have emerged: (a) the more passive martyr, who refuses to acknowledge sovereign power and dies for a transcendent truth, and (b) the more assertive martyr, who sacrifices their life fighting for God and the sovereign. In secular contexts, this assertive martyr fights for secular ideals such as ‘freedom’ or ‘nation’ and represents the symbolic body of the sovereign. The historical distinction between divine truth and state falsehood has been turned into differentiations between democratic rule and threats like terrorism. To further study this transition, this article studies discourses following the deaths of Pim Fortuyn and Jaques Hamel, as both were strongly labeled as martyrs. This results in the final part of the article that examines the cult of commemoration surrounding soldiers in the US and the Netherlands. It argues that the assertive martyr has reached its fully secularized form in these contexts. The transcendent imagery of state sovereignty is evident in the sacrificial discourses around fallen soldiers. At this point of death, the state’s power is reinforced as a transcendent norm and reveals itself in those who ‘sacrifice’ their lives for the freedom of many.

Adrift in the Andaman Sea: 
Law, Archipelagos and the Making of Maritime Sovereignty

Abstract This essay focuses on the long history of archipelagic formations in the Bay of Bengal as sites of legal experimentation. This history is often narrated beginning with convict transportation and the permanent occupation of the Andaman Islands as a British penal settlement in 1857 and the violent erasure of indigenous cultures that followed it. This essay focuses instead on the hundred years preceding it where the English East India Company experimented with abandoning jurisdiction over the lesser-known islands off the Bengal and Burma coasts and people who lived on them, despite being in the position of a territorial sovereign. These experimentations were recorded most eloquently in legal and administrative records about crime - which included, for example, how assault and “river dacoity” on the deltaic islands of the Sunderbans in lower Bengal were to be dealt with and how men convicted of murder on the islands off the Tenasserim coast in southern Burma were to be prosecuted. In each case, prompted by tensions between the Company and the British Crown, policing and prosecution were abandoned, but this escaped public attention as it took place on the empire’s maritime edges. Although jurisdictional claims were central to the expansionist aims of the British empire in the nineteenth century around the Indian Ocean, these instances offer an alternate account of sovereignty, one where assertions and abandonments were both critical to the making of empires.

The Identification and Regulation of Expropriation in International Investment Law

This essay focuses on the concept of expropriation within the framework of international investment law. Expropriation has evolved from direct state appropriation of foreign investors’ property to indirect expropriation, a more covert measure without the transfer of ownership. This essay distinguishes between direct and indirect expropriation, explores the meaning of expropriation through key cases, and evaluates the challenges tribunals face in legal practices. Finally, this essay examines the role of fair and equitable treatment (FET) standards and compensation mechanisms. With an effective regulation of expropriation, the author believes that a balance between state sovereignty and investor protection can be achieved.

Formation of historical memory of the first independence period in Latvia in the Perestroika years, 1987–1990

The author analyses the evolution of a new historical narrative in Latvia during the era of Perestroika, a period marked by the emergence of numerous public initiatives springing from political and social movements. One of the key initiatives was the restoration of the memory of ‘forgotten pages of history’, namely events and individuals who had been erased from the historical record in the Soviet Union for ideological reasons. Given that the restoration of state sovereignty was a central objective of this period, the “revival” of commemorative dates related to the history of the Republic of Latvia’s first independence (1918–1940) was a logical consequence of the search for one’s roots. A number of historical events were not only integrated into the collective memory but also referenced in political documents designed to reinstate national sovereignty. One of the primary objectives of this process was to construct a new historical narrative that would assert continuity and legal identity between the Republic of Latvia of the interwar period and the one that emerged in the late Soviet era, seeking to secede from the USSR and regain its lost independence. The formulation of the doctrine of national continuity entailed, on the one hand, the pursuit of reference points that would serve as the basis for a new state and national identity, and, on the other hand, encompassed a public discourse on the “black pages” of history, reflecting the aspiration to overcome the challenging historical legacy associated with the loss of independence in 1940 and to establish a framework for legitimate international relations.

The IHR Journey: Past Lessons and Future Directions

Abstract The International Health Regulations (IHR), established in 1969 and revised in 2005, represent a binding framework for 196 countries to combat global health threats. Historically, the IHR emerged in response to the need for a collective defence against the spread of infectious diseases. In the present, the IHR provides a legal structure for the World Health Organization (WHO) and its member states to report public health emergencies of international concern, ensuring a coordinated, prompt, and effective response. As we look towards the future, the IHR’s role is pivotal in addressing the complexities of global health security. The emergence of novel pathogens, the risk of bioterrorism, and the impact of climate change on disease patterns call for the evolution of the IHR. Such ammendments comprise: increasing clarity on multilevel jurisdiction; defining a pandemic emergency; introducing the concept of quarantine as a public health measure; stressing a compromise and solidarity approach between States Parties; reinforcing the need for bidirectional action between the WHO and States Parties; underlining cargo, as well as passengers, as relevant for public health measures; certificate digitalisation; among others. Strengthening the IHR is essential for a proactive approach to health policy, ensuring preparedness and resilience against any health crisis that may arise, although it remains in great controversy the right balance between the respect of national sovereignty and supranational impositions over national, democratically elected governments. Calling upon this reflection aims to bridge the gap felt in most WHO’s member states.

Westphalian System of International Relations: Formation Dynamics and Disintegration Factors

This article explores the formation and evolution of the system of international relations, asserting that the principles established by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which marked the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War, fundamentally transformed inter-state relations and laid the groundwork for the entire framework of international relations. The author conducts a comprehensive analysis of the core principles of the Westphalian system, identifying criteria and universal indicators of traditional state-centric international relations within this model. The study emphasizes the significance of examining the transformative processes within international relations, tracing subsequent variations from a state-centric to an institutionally-political framework. Each reconfiguration of the Westphalian system is described with attention to its temporal and spatial characteristics. The driving forces behind the genesis and functioning of all models of traditional inter-state relations are delineated. Furthermore, the research investigates the primary causes behind the disintegration of the Westphalian system, highlighting critical international political conditions that facilitate restructuring and the emergence of new systems. The author concludes that the system of international relations is transitioning into a qualitatively distinct phase, diverging from the traditional state-centric paradigm.

THE EVOLVING LANDSCAPE OF INVESTOR PROTECTION: BALANCING STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND INVESTOR RIGHTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The evolving landscape of investor protection in the 21st century requires a delicate balance between safeguarding investor rights and preserving state sovereignty. As global investments expand, investors seek legal assurances to protect their assets, while states must retain the ability to regulate in the public interest, addressing economic, social, and environmental challenges. This tension has sparked debates about the role of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and the need for reform. By modernizing investment treaties and dispute resolution processes, the international community can create a more equitable system that fosters both investment and sustainable development, ensuring mutual benefits for investors and states alike.

Young Europeans’ Geo-Political Identities: A Poststructural Analysis

This study analyses the way young Europeans, aged between 10 and 20, construct their sense of identity with geo-political entities such as the nation, the state and the European Union; how these are expressed; and how young people manage the potential multiplicity of identities. It re-analyses earlier data, some 224 transcripts of young Europeans discussing their identities and sense of attachment to the geo-political entities of the state and the nation. This study looks specifically at how they discuss affiliations to a country or nation and does so within the historical context of the development of European nations in the 19th and 20th centuries and the ‘strict definition’ of nationality, as based on either birthplace or parentage. The young people’s discussions identify a wide range of reasons for attachment (or not) to one or more states: these include parentage, birthplace, passports, culture, language, residence, etc., many of which are incompatible with each other. Their response to this is often to profess multiple identities, switching to use that is most appropriate to a particular context or contingency. How does this behaviour meet the various models of identity formation, such as the psychosocial, the socio-cultural, and the poststructuralist? These young people also offer a range of qualities or values that they expect a state to uphold and deliver and are sometimes critical of states’ behaviour in this area. The combination of these attributes and qualities leads to a range of attitudes towards a polity or polities, ranging from acceptance of their status to indifference. The explanations suggested in this paper are that globalisation and migration have led to the realisation that the ‘strict definitions’ of nationality are no longer appropriate, and there are new potential attributes for identity, and secondly, that the development of supranational codification and the implementation of human rights are weakening the sovereignty of states. Together, these two factors reduce the perception of the requirement to develop a single overriding national identity. This combination of multiple identities and recognising the importance of human rights values is most commonly found amongst young people who have grown up in multicultural societies, often urban, and the corollary of this is that combination is least likely to be found among the older population in more rural, monocultural settlements.