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 somewhat more brutal realism, sovereignty is characterized by and as an effective monopoly of force over the territory and people under its jurisdiction. This absolute conception of sovereignty was proposed by Bodin, and found its definitive expression in English by Hobbes. A bank robber may briefly exercise predominant force within a bank, but cannot stand up to the police when they respond in force. Even a rebel will either be defeated and re-subjected to the...