The Right of Self-Determination of Peoples
The Domestication of an Illusion

This book examines the conceptual and political history of the right of self-determination of peoples.

Jörg Fisch (Author), Anita Mage (Translated by)

9781107688209, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 December 2015

349 pages, 2 b/w illus. 8 maps 4 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'This is an ambitious and yet elegantly composed study of a complex notion. Dr Jörg Fisch combines a conceptual analysis of the notion of 'self-determination' and cognate expressions with a dense chronology of illustrations of their uses in international practice. Highlighting the contrast between the irreducible idealism and the political instrumentality of self-determination, Fisch produces a powerful explanation for the surprising persistence of a notion that is full of paradoxes and yet indispensable in modern political life.' Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki

The right of self-determination of peoples holds out the promise of sovereign statehood for all peoples and a domination-free international order. But it also harbors the danger of state fragmentation that can threaten international stability if claims of self-determination lead to secessions. Covering both the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century independence movements in the Americas and the twentieth-century decolonization worldwide, this book examines the conceptual and political history of the right of self-determination of peoples. It addresses the political contexts in which the right and concept were formulated and the practices developed to restrain its potentially anarchic character, its inception in anti-colonialism, nationalism, and the labor movement, its instrumentalization at the end of the First World War in a formidable duel that Wilson lost to Lenin, its abuse by Hitler, the path after the Second World War to its recognition as a human right in 1966, and its continuing impact after decolonization.

Prologue: national unity and secession in the symbolism of power
Introduction: a concept and ideal
Part I. Theory of Self-Determination: 1. Individual self-determination
2. Collective self-determination
3. The people
4. Self-determination and the right of self-determination
Part II. Self-Determination in Practice: 5. The early modern period in Europe: precursors of a right of self-determination?
6. The first decolonization and the right to independence: the Americas, 1776–1826
7. The French Revolution and the invention of the plebiscite
8. From the European Restoration to the First World War, 1815–1914
9. The First World War and the peace treaties, 1918–23
10. The interwar period, 1923–39
11. The Second World War: the perversion of a great promise
12. The Cold War and the second decolonization, 1945–89
13. After 1989: the quest for a new equilibrium
Epilogue: the right of the weak.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], National liberation & independence, post-colonialism [HBTR], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL]