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 …
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Good News in Ukraine
There hasn’t been much news about the Ukraine war for the last 6-9 months, as it appears to have fallen into a stalemate and the summer offensives have achieved little. The good news is that this has finally inspired Ukraine’s supporters to begin urging the country to consider negotiations. The best outcome for this war …
An Adventist Take on Spinoza
I was surprised to find an article in a Seventh-Day Adventist journal praising Baruch Spinoza. Adventists tend toward literal interpretations of scripture — their very name concerns the literal interpretation of the Sabbath — and Spinoza’s view of religion is high metaphorical. In some ways, it is hardly compatible with a traditional understanding of God, …
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 …
Sabbatai Zevi
We generally associate 1492 with Columbus’s voyage to the Americas, but it was a remarkably eventful year in other respect. Even without leaving the confines of Spain, it was the year that the Reconquista was completed and the year that Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews. Similarly, 1648 is known to the West primarily as …
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 …
Osnabrück Linen
Today I learned that Osnabrück, one of the two cities where the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated, is noted for its linen cloth. It is not a fine cloth but a very course weave, known generically in the English-speaking world as “Osnaburg” (and elsewhere under similar names). It is noted for having been commonly used …
The Meaning of Religious Freedom
I have argued on several occasions that the Peace of Westphalia was synonymous with religious freedom long before it took up its modern association with sovereignty. And yet, religious freedom is a contentious subject, even for people who believe in it in principle. The Peace of Westphalia did not grant freedom to all religions, only …
Osnabrück Peace Prize
I learned something new this week. Osnabrück, one of the two cities where the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated, was the birthplace of German author Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque, as it happens, is most famous for his novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Im Westen Nichts Neues), which has a pacifist theme that runs …