Violations of State Sovereignty - Detailseite

This course explores violations of domestic political sovereignty.  This is done in two parts.  The first part of the course focuses on defining key concepts, and outlining the role of international institutions, international norms, and interstate relationships in reducing the degree of political autonomy held by states.  Students will learn about how bodies like the United Nations, concepts like the Responsibility to Protect, and hierarchical military and economic relationships can impact the sovereignty of states.  The second part of the course explores the causes and consequences of directed, intentional interventions by one state into the domestic politics of another state.  Such interventions can be oriented towards installing or propping up preferred leaders, pitting domestic groups against each other, creating a widespread and specific shift in public opinion, or otherwise affecting the stability and leadership of a target state.  These interventions go beyond merely lobbying for specific policy changes, and are often characterized as violations of the sovereignty of the states who are targeted.  The tools used in these interventions vary widely, including overt military force, covert action, election interference, and the strategic use of foreign aid.  Students who complete the course will obtain historical knowledge about the forces that have served to limit state sovereignty, substantive knowledge about the sources and impacts of these factors, and critical perspectives on what these forces mean for both international and domestic politics.

Three Introductory Readings:

The first session of this course would be an introductory day that is largely about the establishment of three central terms or concepts: (1) international influence on domestic politics, (2) sovereignty violations, and (3) intervention.  While most of the readings I plan to assign in this course are relatively recent pieces, the introductory readings are older, classic works on the some of the main ideas to be explored in the course:

Gourevitch, P. (1978). The second image reversed: the international sources of domestic politics. International organization, 32(4), 881-912.

Gourevitch (1978) introduces the general focus of this course:  foreign/international impacts on domestic politics.  While Gourevitch’s idea of international politics affecting domestic politics is much wider than the targeted interventions explored in the course, this paper is still a foundational piece showing that the comparative politics of a state cannot be fully studied without examining the pressures on that state from beyond its borders.

Krasner, S. D. (1995). Compromising Westphalia. International security, 20(3), 115-151.

Krasner (1995) contends that most states have never been fully sovereign in the Westphalian sense, and shows the ways in which these states have had their autonomy restricted or violated.  Krasner offers multiple definitions of sovereignty, ways in which sovereignty can be violated (with or without the consent of the state), and a solid introduction to the history of how outside forces can heavily restrict the autonomy of states, even within their borders.

Rosenau, J. N. (1969). Intervention as a scientific concept. Journal of conflict resolution, 13(2), 149-171.

Rosenau (1969) is an early and seminal attempt to lay out what “intervention” is, and how it should be differentiated from undirected, unintentional forms for foreign influence (such as cultural dialogue) and from other phenomena such as imperialism.