Author: Haroon Khalil

The challenge posed by bloc politics of the Cold War and intervention by USA and USSR in the internal affairs of many countries is well known. Interference by either power in the name of protecting the interest of communism or capitalism and democracy amounted to violation of the sovereign right of the concerned nation-state to…

Let us take up the pulls and the pressures, which arise from within and challenge the concept of a sovereign state. In many post-colonial societies, a situation has emerged where neither the state nor the nation exists. The case of what has come to be identified as ‘failed states’ is in point. Consider the societies…

In addition to the factors like neo-colonialism, supra-national organizations, global concerns and globalization, we find a few more factors and forces that challenge the traditional concept of sovereign state. These factors and forces can be identified as external interventions, intra-state ethnic and civil strife, sub-national and secessionist movements.

Globalization may be described as a process, which creates networks of interdependence at worldwide distances.137 This means that irrespective of geographical distances, events occurring all over the world are affecting the lives and decisions of people everywhere despite their national locations. In short, ‘Globalization is the emergence of a complex web of interconnectedness that means that…

There have emerged certain issues which are, by their very nature, of global concerns. These concerns, on the one hand, require global effort and to that extent compromise on external sovereignty and, on the other, challenge the concept of territorial or geographical impermeability of the state boundary. To list some of them, they include issues…

The nation-state has never acted in vacuum and the very fact of interaction amongst them could lead to some form of integration or consolidation or association, transcending the logic of national boundary. Broadly, three forms of association or supra-national integration could be observed: politico-military associations in the form of military blocs, economic associations in the…

Imperialism and colonialism implied relationship of dominance on and subjugation of the acquired state/territory. And as such, the sovereignty of the State conquered did not exist independent of the colonial rule. It has been argued that imperialism and colonialism, now, has been substituted by a new phenomenon called ‘neo-colonialism’. Kwame Nkrumah in his book, Neo-colonialism: The…

The preceding approaches and criticism of the traditional concept of legal supremacy of the State present theoretical perspectives against the centralized and organized authority of the State understood as sovereignty. In the following discussions, our aim is to present those factors and challenges that are the result of interactive processes and not theoretical but processual.…