Concepts of Sovereignty
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Sovereignty, in some recognizable form, is a relatively ancient institution in human affairs. Its deep-rootedness is conveyed by terms like king and ruler, words native to English, older and with a more primal ring in our ears than the Latin or Greek borrowings that comprise most of our language of political affairs. Early human societies probably had no concept similar to sovereignty, but the pharoahs who built the Pyramids certainly saw themselves, and were seen others as sovereigns, and the general concept is at least as old as any written records. Sovereignty in the specific sense that it is now used and understood by students of political science and international affairs, however, is a rather recent development. It can be said to have jelled in Europe in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries. European colonization and influence subsequently spread it worldwide. Today, every part of Earth's land surface is formally either subject to some sovereign authority, or (as in the case of Antarctica) governed by a treaty agreed to by sovereign authorities. The sea, and even outer space, are likewise governed by rules by treaties among sovereign authorities. Paradoxically, however, the future of sovereignty as now understood is in greater doubt today than at any time in the modern era. Sovereignty, in the modern formal sense, is an exclusive and absolute jurisdiction over some territory, exercised by a single, indivisable sovereign authority. On a level of some
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on in another player's domains. It is not only illegal, it is impossible; the game leaves no place for it even in cheating. "Diplomacy" has many artificialities, but it aptly represents the modern era's conception of relations among sovereign states.
This conception took gradual form during the 16th and 17th centuries, in response to new conditions that made sovereignty a useful and then normative model of political reality. One cause of the development was political and military factors. The medieval host of retainers, serving the king but raised and led by nobles (or mercenary captains) gave way to the national army, raised and commanded by royal officials. Another factor was the wars of religion, which produced a level of disaffection among Protestant minorities in Catholic realms, and vice versa, far more intense than the traditional disloyalties of ambitious nobles.
The Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, thus also conventionally marks the full development of the state system and its concept of sovereignty, to the degree that "Westphalian" is a standard term for the state system as a whole. In essence, both Catholic and Protestant sovereigns agreed not to meddle in their neighors' religious af
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Latin Greek, Moreover Diplomacy, Sforza Machiavelli, English Hobbes, Louis XIV, Cold War, European Union, Catholic Protestant, World War, Vietcong PLO, sovereign authority, medieval europe, world war, 16th 17th centuries, war ideological, concept sovereignty, french revolution, sovereign authorities, holy roman, 16th 17th, roman empire,
Approximate Word count = 1513
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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