State Sovereignty Concept, Phenomenon and Ramifications Ersun N. Kurtulus
STATE SOVEREIGNTY Ersun N. Kurtulus, 2005. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-6988-0 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53155-4 DOI 10.1057/9781403977083 ISBN 978-1-4039-7708-3 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kurtulus, Ersun N. State sovereignty : concept, phenomenon and ramifications / Ersun N. Kurtulus. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. State, The. 2. Sovereignty. I. Title. JC327.K9 2005 320.1 5 dc22 2005045960 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November 2005 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
La Souveraineté, c est quelque chose. Charles de Gaulle
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Contents Preface vii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Referents of Sovereignty or Discourses of Sovereignty: Referent as Discourse and Discourse as Referent 11 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Theories of Sovereignty: Reclaiming the Domain of Empirical Research 35 Sovereignty of States and Similar Entities: A Conceptual Analysis 57 Juridical State Sovereignty: A Futile Search for Regular or Regulated State Behavior 85 Chapter 6 The Problem of Juridical State Sovereignty 105 Chapter 7 Factual State Sovereignty: An Omnipresence that is Allegedly Absent 129 Chapter 8 The Problem of Factual State Sovereignty 159 Chapter 9 Conclusion 185 Notes 195 Index 228
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Preface The main argument of this book was formulated one wonderful spring morning at the highest point of the island of Santa Maria in Azores. Watching the beautiful landscape from 587 meters high and not being able to detach myself from my work, I noticed that I could see the coastlines of the island completely. Some valleys were not visible from my vantage point, but their entrances were. Some parts of the island were covered in fog, while others were glittering under the sunshine. Any sovereign, I thought, watching the island from where I am would be able to have perfect knowledge of the movements in and out of her domain. She would perhaps not have complete surveillance, but if she had sufficient numbers of military, police, and civil servants, she would be able to put into effect whatever she wished to put into effect. She could, moreover, receive recognition from other, similarly powerful sovereigns in other similarly isolated islands. If she was under duress, she would be able to receive help from them by making use of the airport, which has been derelict since the trans-atlantic passenger flights entered into the era of jet aviation. After all, I concluded, whatever inconsistencies and obscurities we may have in our conceptualizations of sovereignty, the phenomenon is as simple as a set of such facts about the relationship between an agent and a territory, about a sovereign watching and ruling her domain from its highest elevation and receiving acknowledgment of what she is doing. Many people and institutions have been involved in the work that is presented in the following chapters. I would like to thank the Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, for funding my doctoral thesis. I am especially grateful to Stiftelsen för internationalisering av högre utbildning och forskning STINT for granting me an award, which enabled me to make use of research environments that exist elsewhere in the world. Among the people working in this department, I would like to thank particularly my supervisor, Kjell Goldmann, whose professionalism and sharp intellectual scrutiny contributed
viii Preface immensely to improving the quality of this book. I am also grateful to Bo Lindensjö, Jouni Rainakainen, and Daniel Tarshys for their comments in the final stage of the writing process. I would like to thank the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, for the intellectually stimulating environment that they offered me during the final years of my work. Special thanks are due to Thomas Saalfeld whose warm friendship and wise advice helped me greatly in my new environment. Previous versions of chapters 3 and 5 were published in the October 2004 issue of the Global Society and the October 2002 issue of the Review of International Studies respectively. They are reproduced here, thanks to the permissions granted by Taylor & Francis Ltd. and the Cambridge University Press. I would like to thank Alan James for commenting on one of the main arguments presented in my RIS article. Various chapters of this thesis were read and commented upon by Hans Agne, University of Stockholm, Jens Bartelson, University of Copenhagen, Mervyn Frost, Kings College, Lutz Berger, University of Tuebingen, and Richard Sakwa, University of Kent. I would like to thank all of them for their valuable comments. Finally, special thanks are due to my climbing partner James Twohig and the members of the University of Kent Mountaineering Club (UKC-MC), the student members as well as the old-gits. Our frequent trips to different parts of England, with a lot of climbing, wind, rain, ale, and fun, provided the necessary breaks from what was after all an intensive process of writing and revising.