The Sovereignty Dilemma

At the beginning of this article, Inayatullah tells his readers that the “principle of nonintervention constrains traditional empire building”.[1]  It seems that it is this role of sovereign states that really forms the international realm as we know it.  Inayatullah further reminds us that “scholars and policymakers increasingly argue that the principle of sovereignty acts as an impediment toward improving the global condition”.[2] The impediments Inayatullah refers to are the limitations that the law of sovereignty places on groups outside of a sovereign state that interfere with major humanitarian movements that seem necessary from those actors outside the state, as well as those actors that are affected by atrocities such as genocide and persecution.  

 

Inayatullah states that, “the conventionally recognized and discussed tension between the dysfunctions and achievements of sovereignty is part of the political setting of what I refer to as the sovereignty dilemma”.[3] This really sums up this confliction of rights between actors in the international realm.  I find myself in a very selfish mindset, because I would want my thoughts on major humanitarian efforts or environmental issues to be able to override the sovereignty of the place misusing their power in order to restore justice appropriately, but on the other hand I would not want another group of people to impose their values on me and my sovereign state.  I recognize how this logic is problematic.  

 

According to Inayatullah, there are two ways in which we can think of this issue;“either we respect the sovereignty principle and seek permission from the very state agents whose purificatory national agenda may have motivated global humanitarian concerns in the first place, or we press our agenda (somehow having made a judgment about its superiority) without the permission of state agents and, consequently, erode and delegitimize sovereignty for all states”.[4] It seems that this topic can go hand in hand with the past week’s module about international law and the complexities that go with enforcing international law because of sovereignty.

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[1] Naeem Inayatullah, “Beyond the Sovereignty Dilemma: Quasi- States as Social Construct,” in State Sovereignty as Social Construct,ed. Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber
(Cambridge, 1996).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.