Sovereignty in the age of interventionism: diminished or restructured?

Abstract

The principle of sovereignty was a major pillar of the world organization particularly in the age of the United Nations. There has been an enormous interest in the past few decades in sovereignty fuelled by global events starting from the collapse of the Soviet Union، and then the subsequent emergence of new states، an increased global interdependence and other political developments. However، the rigid nature of the classic sovereignty represented a stubborn obstacle to the humanitarian advancement in the world’s order. In this context، the doctrine of ’sovereignty as responsibility’ was meant to fill in this gap. It was created to give an answer for using sovereignty to prevent. intervention even where human rights are massively violated.

This paper attempts to study claims by IR theorists that sovereignty has become irrelevant to our current world. It is the contention of this paper that the theory of sovereignty is a product of particular social and economic conditions. However، far from becoming irrelevant or redundant، sovereignty today is still an essential part of the legal and political international order. Yet، sovereignty has evolved in a reflection of other deep transformations in the international structure. In this evolving context the paper challenges the potential capabilities of the ”Responsibility to Protect“ principle in terms of .finding the proper answer to the world’s main atrocities.

The paper is divided into: an Introduction، three main parts and a conclusion. The first part ”Orthodoxies related to Sovereignty and Intervention“ attempts to place the concept of sovereignty within the historical context of modern state development. The second one; Legal Variables and Responses: International Relation Perspective will discuss the meaning of sovereignty within some of the prominent IR writings mainly from a legal perspective. The third part; ”Sovereignty in the contemporary post-Cold War era: developments of the legal perspective“ discusses the notion of sovereignty in the context of the increasing practice of post-Cold War Humanitarian intervention. The article as above mentioned sheds light on the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty ’Responsibility to protect’ as an example of efforts to redefine ’sovereignty’ in the post-Cold war era. Therefore، the third part discusses the relevance of sovereignty in the contemporary world. The conclusion will give the author’s account on of sovereignty within the current challenging environment