14.3 Sovereignty and Anarchy

The Concept of Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the foundational idea behind the entire international system. It means a state has supreme authority to govern itself and make decisions without outside interference. Every other concept in international relations builds on this principle.

There are two dimensions to sovereignty:

• Internal sovereignty is a state's authority over its own territory and population. This covers everything from setting tax policy to enforcing criminal law.
• External sovereignty is a state's independence from outside control and its right to interact with other states as an equal. This is the principle behind organizations like the United Nations, where each member state gets a vote regardless of size or power.

Sovereignty shapes how states behave in several concrete ways. It allows them to pursue their own national interests, enter into treaties and agreements voluntarily, and set their own domestic policies without needing approval from anyone else.

A key norm that flows from sovereignty is the principle of non-interference, which holds that states should not intervene in each other's internal affairs. In practice, this principle gets violated. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 is a clear example of one state overriding another's sovereignty.

The term Westphalian sovereignty comes from the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe. It established the idea that each state has exclusive authority over its territory and that outside powers should not meddle in its domestic affairs. This remains the baseline assumption of the international system today.

Anarchy in International Relations

Anarchy in international relations

"Anarchy" in political science doesn't mean chaos or disorder. It simply describes the absence of a central authority above sovereign states. There's no "world government" that can enforce rules, settle disputes, or punish bad behavior. States are the highest authority in the system.

This creates what scholars call a self-help system. Since no higher power will protect them, states must rely on their own capabilities to ensure their security and survival. That dynamic encourages competition and, at times, conflict, as states try to maximize their power and influence. The ongoing US-China rivalry is a good example of two major powers competing for influence within this anarchic structure.

One of the most important consequences of anarchy is the security dilemma. This occurs when one state takes steps to increase its own security (like building up its military), and other states perceive those steps as threatening. The result can be an arms race where both sides feel less secure than before, even though both were just trying to protect themselves. India-Pakistan tensions illustrate this well: both countries developed nuclear weapons partly in response to perceived threats from the other.

Realism, one of the dominant theories in international relations, takes anarchy as its starting point. Realists argue that because the system is anarchic, power and self-interest are the primary drivers of state behavior.

Sovereignty vs. anarchy in global politics

Sovereignty and anarchy are two sides of the same coin. Sovereignty gives states their authority, and anarchy is the condition that results from having many sovereign states with no one above them. Together, they shape nearly every aspect of international politics.

The interplay between these two concepts affects state decision-making in predictable ways:

1. States tend to prioritize their own interests and security over broader global concerns. The US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 reflected a calculation that national economic interests outweighed the cooperative framework.
2. States are often reluctant to hand authority to international institutions or accept limits on their sovereignty. US opposition to the International Criminal Court stems partly from concerns about an outside body having jurisdiction over American citizens.
3. States engage in self-help behavior, such as building military capabilities or forming alliances like NATO, because they can't count on anyone else to protect them.

The impact on international cooperation is more nuanced than you might expect:

• Sovereignty can actually facilitate cooperation because it gives states the standing to enter agreements as equal partners. The World Trade Organization works because sovereign states voluntarily agree to its rules.
• Anarchy can hinder cooperation because there's no reliable way to enforce agreements. States face constant temptation to defect from cooperative arrangements when it suits them, as many countries did with the Kyoto Protocol's emissions targets.
• International institutions like the UN Security Council try to mitigate the effects of anarchy by providing forums for negotiation and dispute resolution. But their effectiveness is always constrained by state sovereignty, most visibly when a permanent member uses its veto power to block action.

This tension between sovereignty and anarchy is a central feature of global politics. North Korea's nuclear program is a case in point: North Korea invokes its sovereignty to justify its weapons development, while the anarchic system makes it extremely difficult for other states to stop it.

The Modern International System

The modern international system rests on several interlocking concepts that all connect back to sovereignty and anarchy.

• The state system treats sovereign states as the primary actors in global politics. Non-state actors (international organizations, multinational corporations, NGOs) play important roles, but states remain the main players.
• Balance of power is a mechanism for maintaining stability. States form alliances and build capabilities to prevent any single state from becoming dominant enough to threaten the rest. This logic drove much of Cold War politics and continues to shape alliances today.
• International law provides rules and norms for state behavior and dispute resolution. But enforcement is a persistent challenge because, in an anarchic system, no authority can consistently compel states to comply.
• Collective security arrangements, like NATO's Article 5, aim to deter aggression by committing member states to mutual defense. The idea is that an attack on one is an attack on all, which raises the cost of aggression.
• Globalization has increased economic, cultural, and political interdependence among states. This challenges traditional sovereignty because issues like climate change, financial crises, and pandemics don't respect borders. States increasingly find that they can't solve major problems alone, yet they remain reluctant to give up sovereign authority.