Category: sovereignty
Westphalia, raison d’état, and the United Nations
Our focus article for today makes the usual mistake of associating Westphalia with sovereignty, but it is interesting in other respects. It is the first article I have seen in a long time to use the term “raison d’état,” meaning “reason of state.” This was a popular term originating in the late 16th century and …
Westphalia and Colbertism?
I read a lot of articles that only mention the Peace of Westphalia as a throw -away line about the origins of sovereignty, so I was excited to get to this one that went into considerable depth on the history of the treaty. Surely, I thought, the author would have something interesting to say. I …
The Holy Roman Empire and the EU
Our article for today posits a fundamental similarity between the Holy Roman Empire and the EU; and, moreover, predicts the demise of the EU because of recent proposed changes (see this document). Although the author asserts that comparisons between the HRE and the EU are commonplace, I see very little in common with them. The …
Westphalia, Sovereignty, and Freedom
It is not often that I take the time to summarize an article about the relevance of the Peace of Westphalia, but I am going to do so this time because it is such an interesting article, even if it repeats misconceptions about Westphalia. The title is “Freedom, Sovereignty, and Individual Rights,” and it was …
Separatist States and Turkey: Nagorno-Karabakh and North Cyprus
An article in a Greek online journal calls out Turkey for being incosistent in its support for sovereignty: it helped end the separatist state of Nagorno-Karabakh, yet it continues to support Northern Cyprus. This discussion does not concern the Peace of Westphalia directly; it is, at most, about sovereignty, which Westphalia was not about. On …
Separatist States and Turkey: Nagorno-Karabakh and North CyprusRead More
Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces in Nigeria
Today’s article is one on Nigerian unity and separatism by Azeez Olaniyan. It showed up in my feed because it begins with the traditional homage to the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of the modern state system. It also begins with the author citing his own work as sources three times in the opening …
Secularism and the State
I get an alert email from Google whenever “Peace of Westphalia” pops up on a new site. These generally fall into one of two categories. First, there are those in the “Executive Intelligence Review,” a publication put out by the LaRouche movement. If you aren’t old enough to have lived through the 1980’s, you probably …
Confusing Borders: Baarle-Hertog
Today’s topic is international borders, specifically a very messy border between Belgium and the Netherlands. It is allegedly the most complicated border in the world, and this isn’t that hard to believe. It is Baarle-Hertog, a Belgian exclave in the Netherlands. It is more than just an exclave, however, because it contains numerous smaller Dutch …