Mills, James Robert
(2009)
The challenge of self-determination and emerging nationalism: the evolution of the international community’s normative responses to state fragmentation.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
How does the international community understand and apply the right of
self-determination? Who holds this right: individuals, peoples, nations, states,
ethnicities, minorities, majorities? What limits are there to the exercise of this
right and which claims are ‘valid’ and which are not? This thesis addresses these
issues as it seeks, above all, to answer the question of when, why and in what
ways the international community’s understanding of and normative responses
to self-determination have evolved.
To do so, Part I explores critically the theories and history of
nationalism, human rights, sovereignty and self-determination to explain the
challenges of ‘emerging nationalism’ (defined herein as nationalism within
established multi-national states aimed at altering the constitutional and/or social
standing of the nation vis-à-vis the larger political entity). This part identifies
the genesis of the interconnected ideas of identity, human rights, and
sovereignty and begins to trace the evolution of the norm of self-determination
over time as it has been conceived and employed by international society. It
suggests new approaches to these concepts based within the liberal democratic
tradition, which are, arguably, more philosophically coherent than other
explanations for self-determination.
Part II assesses international normative responses to state fragmentation
and national liberation prior to the end of the Cold War to determine how
much they have resembled the interpretation of national self-determination
suggested in Part I, contending that the conceptual evolution of selfdetermination
can only be interpreted accurately by understanding the parallel
evolution and development of international society.
Part III examines the evolution of self-determination and emerging
nationalism in the post-Cold War era, asking whether the norms generated by
the present-day society of states are consistent with the theoretical and
historical observations made earlier. The recent case of Kosovo is examined in
detail as it best suggests the present trajectory of international norms and
responses to emerging nationalism.
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