Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Geopolitics of sovereignty, state failure and unrecognized states

Class at Faculty of Social Sciences |
JPM300

Syllabus

Lecturer: Martin Riegl Office hours: Wednesday 5pm E-mail: martinriegl@email.cz Academic Year 2018/2019

The class runs as a lecture. 1) Introduction - development of the world political map2) Definitions of state, mythology of statehood, criteria of the sovereign state, territorial and governmental legitimacy

Reading: a) Montevideo convention: http://caselawofeu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Montevideo-Convention-on-the-Rights-and-Duties-of-States.pdf

Further reading:  b) GLASSNER, M. I., de BLIJ, H. J. (1989): Systematic Political Geography, John Wiley & Sons, New York - Chichester - Brisbane - Toronto - Singapore.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X9HzzZ0yHCsPHqTS4m0MmcRvezooaogC/view?usp=sharing 3) Typology of non-sovereign political entities (dependent territories, colonies, protectorates, associated states etc.)

Reading: a) RIEGL, M., DOBOŠ, B., BEČKA, J. (2018). Independent Territories Revisited? The Concept of Partially Independent Territories (PITs) and the Role of Such Territories in the International System. Territory, Politics, Governance.

Further reading:  b) MINAHAN, J. (1996). Nations without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements. Greenwood. Appendix: List of stateless nations. c) GLASSNER, M. I., de BLIJ, H. J. (1989): Systematic Political Geography, John Wiley & Sons, New York - Chichester - Brisbane - Toronto - Singapore.  4) Geopolitics and typology of anomalous political units (quasi, almost, para, pseudo, failed, anarchic, ramshackle states…), typology of quasi-states Reading: a) STANISLAWSKI, B. H. (2008). Para States, Quasi-states, and Black Spots: Perhaps Not States, But Not "Ungoverned Territories", Either. International Studies Review. Vol. 10, no. 2, s. 366-396. ISSN:1521-9488. (EBSCO) 5) Internal and External sovereignty after 1945

Reading: a) JACKSON, R.H. (1993): Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations and the Third World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. b) FABRY, M. (2013). Theorizing State Recognition. International Theory. Vol.5 no. 1. c) STERIO, M. (2013). On the Right to External Self-Determination: “Selfistans,” Secession, and the Great Powers’ Rule. Minnesota Journal of International Law. Vol.19, No.1.

Further reading:

BERG, E., KUUSK, E. (2010). What makes sovereignty a relative concept? Empirical approaches to international society. Political Geography. pp 40 - 49.   6) Sovereignty - situations not/derogating from sovereignty)/erosion of sovereignty/premodern, modern and post-modern World a) CRAWFORD, J. (2006). The Creation of States in International Law (2nd edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 7) Civil wars and state failure, external involvement

Reading:

HERACLIDES, A. (1990). Secessionist Minorities and External Involvement. International Organization.

Further reading:a) Systemic Peace databaseb) MCCOLL, R. W. (1969). The Insurgent States: Territorial Bases of Revolution. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 59, no. 4, s. 61-63. ISSN: 0004-5608. 8) Theory of secession/Geographic aspect of state failureReading: a) BERAN, H. (1984). A Liberal Theory of Secession. Political Studies. Vol. 32, no. 1, s. 21-31. ISSN: 0032-3217 . (EBSCO)b) BIRCH, A. H. (1984). Another Liberal Theory of Secession. Political Studies. Vol. 32, no. 3, s. 596-602. ISSN: 0032-3217. (EBSCO)

Further reading:

HERBST, J. (2000): Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control: States and Power in Africa. Princetown: Princetown University Press. ISBN: 0-691-01027-7. (maps) 9) Practice of secession and international recognition

Reading: a) RICH, R. (1993). Symposium: Recent Developments in the Practice of State Recognition. http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/4/1/1207.pdf b) RIEGL, M., DOBOŠ, B. (2018). Power and Recognition: How (Super)Powers Decide the International Recognition Process. Politics & Policy, July 2018. Further reading:b)  FABRY, M. (2010). Recognizing States: International Society and the Establishment of New States Since 1776. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  10) Theories of state failure/Fragile, Failed, Collapsed States - Case studies (DRC, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sudan)

Reading: a) GROS, J. G. (1996). Towards a taxonomy of failed states in the New World Order: decaying Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda and Haiti. Third World Quarterly. Vol. 17, no. 3, s. 455-471. ISSN: 0143-6597. (EBSCO)

Further reading:  a) CAST: An Analytical Model for Early Warning and Risk Assessment of Weak and Failing States. [citováno 2009-8-11]. HERBST, J. (1996-1997). Responding to State Failure in Africa. International Security. Vol. 21, no.  b) ROTBERG, R. I. (2004). Weak and Failing States: Critical New Security Issues. Turkish Policy Quarterly. Vol. 3, no. 2, s. 57-69. ISSN: 1773-0546. c) LUTTWAK, E. N. (1999). Give a war chance. Foreign Affairs. Vol. 78, no. 4. , s. 36-44. ISSN: 0015-7120. (EBSCO) d) HERBST, J. (1996-1997). Responding to State Failure in Africa. In International Security. p. 120-144. 11) Unrecognized states/divided statesReading:a) PEGG, S. (1998). De Facto States in the International System. Institute of International Relations. The University of British Columbia, Working Paper No. 21. b) PEGG, S. (2017). Twenty Years of de facto State Studies: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. c) RIEGL, M., DOBOŠ, B. et al. (2017). Unrecognized States and Secession in the 21st Century. Springer. 12) The New Middle Ages

Reading: a) WILLIAMS, P. (2008): From the New Middle Ages to a New Dark Age: the Decline of the State and U.S. Strategy: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub867.pdf b) KAPLAN, R.D. (1994). The Coming Anarchy. The Atlantic Monthly (February). ISSN: 1072-7825. (on-line): http://sobek.colorado.edu/~blimes/Kaplan%20-%20The%20COming%20Anarchy.pdf3, s. 120-144. ISSN: 0162-2889. c) ZAHAR,E. (2016). A New Typology of Contemporary Armed NonState-Actors: Interpreting The Diversity. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

Further reading:

FRIEDRICH, J. (2001). The Meaning of New Medievalism. European Journal of International Relations. pp. 475 - 502.  

Seminars:

Seminars include a key part of the course. Students are required to read the required literature on a daily basis (available in Moodle) and do one 10-15mins presentation per semester. 2) Definitions: South Rhodesia, Kosovo   3) Non-sovereign entities: UK-Gibraltar, France-New Caledonia   4) Anomalous political units: Daesh, Donetsk and Lugansk People´s Republics   5) Internal and external sovereignty: Somalia, Somaliland   6) Sovereignty: post-2003 Iraq, European Union   7) Civil wars, state failure, external involvement: Bougainville, Sierra Leone   8) Geographic aspects of state failure: Mali, Burkina Faso   9) Practice of secession and international recognition: Taiwan, Bangladesh   10) Theories of state failure: Venezuela, South Sudan   11) Unrecognized states: Abkhazia, Palestine   12) The New Middle Ages: Sweden, Libya    

Annotation

This course explains post-Second War world in terms of division between parts of the world, without fully functioning states, sovereign states, concerned with territorial sovereignty and post-modern states, in which sovereignty is not based on absolute control over territory. The aim of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the geographic criteria for statehood, functions of the state, the positive and negative sovereignty, international recognition and erosion of sovereignty.