The State of Sovereignty
Territories, Laws, Populations

Douglas Howland (Edited by), Luise S. White (Edited by)

9780253220165

Paperback / softback, published 10 December 2008

296 pages, 3 maps
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.522 kg

"[This book's] contribution lies in the rich and well-researched empirical case-study chapters that demonstrate in detail the various different ways in which territory, populations, and authority structures have been organized relative to one another in different places and times.Vol. 23.2 April 2010"—Eric A. Heinze, University of Oklahoma
"The multidisciplinary character of the contributions reinforces the focus of the work . . . that sovereignty is socially constructed and that it changes with time and place. . . . [N]early unique in presenting the different operationalizations of sovereignty while avoiding the superficiality of other attempts to do so."—William Reno, Northwestern University

The State of Sovereignty examines how it came to pass that the nation-state became the prevailing form of governance in the world today. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries and addressing colonization and decolonization around the globe, these essays argue that sovereignty is a set of historically contingent practices, and not something that accrues naturally to states. The contributors explore the different ways in which sovereign political forms have been defined and have defined themselves, placing recent debates about nations and national identity within a broader history of sovereignty, territory, and legality.

Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Sovereignty and the Study of StatesDouglas Howland and Luise White
2. Sovereignty on the Isthmus: Federalism, U.S. Empire, and the Struggle for Panama during the California Gold RushAims McGuinness
3. The Foreign and the Sovereign: Extraterritoriality in East AsiaDouglas Howland
4. Wilsonian Sovereignty in the Middle East: The King-Crane Commission Report of 1919Leonard V. Smith
5. Colonial Sovereignty in Manchuria and ManchukuoDavid Tucker
6. Alternatives to Empire: France and Africa after World War IIFrederick Cooper
7. The Ambiguities of Sovereignty: The United States and the Global Human Rights Cases of the 1940s and 1950sMark Philip Bradley
8. What Does It Take to Be a State? Sovereignty and Sanctions in Rhodesia, 1965–1980Luise White
9. Legal Fictions after EmpireJohn D. Kelly and Martha Kaplan
10. Sovereignty after Socialism at Europe's New BordersKeith Brown
11. Environmental Security, Spatial Preservation, and State Sovereignty in Central AfricaKevin C. Dunn
12. The Paradox of Sovereignty in the BalkansAida A. Hozic
13. The Secret Lives of the "Sovereign": Rethinking Sovereignty as International MoralitySiba N. Grovogui
List of Contributors
Index