Is sovereignty dead? The transformation of international politics

Abstract

The article examines the fate of sovereignty in the post-Cold War international system. It points to some processes that undermine the traditional understanding of modern sovereignty as the exclusivity of jurisdiction over a given territory and the absence of a higher authority than the state. These processes are, first, the development of international jurisdictions that supersede the state, such as the European Court of Human Rights or the International Criminal Court; second, the emergence of a doctrine that links sovereignty to certain obligations of the state towards its citizens, under the name of "responsibility to protect"; third, the dissolution of the distinction inside/outside, as well as of the cohesion of the political community upon which the sovereign state is founded. Parallel to these processes, there is a visible tendency of the state to reassert its sovereignty through a tighter control over the society and its territory, and through the manipulation of the discourse on security and danger.