Statehood and National Identity

Introduction and recent updates

Introduction

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The Statehood and National Identity section addresses a broad range of topics that are related to states, nations, territory, sovereignty, boundaries andsoforth.

The 27 contributions to this section answer questions such as:

• What is the role of borders in contemporary geopolitics?
• Why is sovereignty a difficult notion?
• Which concepts could be applied to ethnic-territorial conflicts?

Daniel Lambach on Failed States

December 2012

Daniel Lambach currently is an Interim Professor of International Relations at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). He elaborates on his research on failed states and provides an abundance of thought-provoking observations such as:

Daniel Lambach: Failed States - definitions, causes, concepts, local governance

Daniel Lambach: Failed States - institutionalization, democratisation, intervention

"State failure describes an average assessment at the national level. In practice, state capacity varies geographically, i.e. from locality to locality, temporally, such as from day to night or from season to season, and functionally, i.e. from one policy field to another."

Matthew Hannah on Social Information

April 2012

Matthew G. Hannah is Professor of Human Geography at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK.

In this two-part interview, he discusses the main themes in his book "Dark Territory in the Information Age: Learning from the West German Census Boycotts of the 1980s":

Matthew Hannah: Germany's census boycott, police tactics, oppression, biopolitics

Matthew Hannah: Information Age, Collective Action, Self-Determination, Citizenship

"By the term informational citizenship I mean a way of seeing many different kinds of knowledge about people, not just knowledge about their preferences among official parties or candidates, as forms of political representation.

To exercise informational citizenship would thus be to get involved actively in decisions about what kinds of knowledge are gathered about us, linked to what sorts of social ontologies, by what organisations, to what purpose, what is done with that knowledge, how is it stored and for how long, etc."

Jon Fox on nationalism

July 2011

Dr Jon Fox is Lecturer in Sociology at Bristol University. In this interview, he elaborates on defining and studying nationalism, and the role of schools, media and sports.

Jon Fox: Nationalism, social constructivism, modernists, ethno-symbolists

Jon Fox: Nationalist elites, representations, reception theory, social media, sports

"To me, that the nation is a social construct is an obvious and fundamental point. The nation does not exist without the myriad social processes that will it into existence; it is therefore socially constructed. To study it otherwise (as having some real, objective, or natural existence in the world) is in my view fundamentally flawed."

Michael Skey on national identity

July 2011

Dr Michael Skey currently teaches sociology at the University of East London. In a double interview, he briefs us on the complexity of national identity, useful research methods and the role of media in its (re)production:

Michael Skey: National identity, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, globalisation

Michael Skey: Nation, media representations, audiences, models, studies, influence

"In terms of the nation, I think that we need to draw more of an analytical distinction between the mediation of this or that nation, as groups struggle over key symbolic and material resources, and the mediation of nationhood; the idea that the world is naturally divided up into nations, individuals belong to a nation and, as a result, have certain beliefs, characteristics, responsibilities and entitlements."

Recommended contributions

David Storey on territories

July 2011

Dr David Storey is Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Worcester. In this interview, he explains the difference between territory, territoriality and territorialisation, and concepts such as nationalism and sovereignty.

David Storey: Territories, landscapes, spaces, places, states, borderless world

"The extent to which Iraq can be regarded as a fully independent sovereign state is open to serious question while the current debt crisis raises stark questions about the nature and extent of Greek, Irish or Portuguese sovereignty. It is perhaps more realistic to view sovereignty as a work-in-progress. It is also the case that some powerful states appear considerably more sovereign than others."

Recognition of new states

February 2010

William Worster currently serves as a lecturer at the Hague University and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Dr Worster's contribution provides a legal perspective on the recognition of new states. Addressed issues include sovereignty, statehood and the Montevideo Convention:

William Worster: Sovereignty - two competing theories of state recognition

"The constitutive theory states that recognition of an entity as a state is not automatic. A state is only a state when it is recognized as such and other states have a considerable discretion to recognize or not. Moreover, only upon recognition by those other states does the new state exist, at least in a legal sense."

Stuart Elden on his new book

January 2010

Professor Stuart Elden (Durham University) obtained a BSc (Hons) and PhD at Brunel University. In this interview, he elaborates on his new book, "Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty". Why did he start writing the book? Which thinkers have inspired him? And do the conclusions of his book leave room for further research?

Stuart Elden: Territory, terror and sovereignty

"Yet territorial integrity in international law, and the UN charter which was continually being referred to, also means territorial sovereignty: the idea that within its boundaries a state is sovereign and no external interference allowed. This was clearly not what was being meant by Bush and Blair."

Michel Foucher about borders

June 2009

Michel Foucher, Professor of geography and geopolitics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris Ulm) and member of the Council of Foreign Affairs (Paris), discusses the various roles of borders and the influence of borders on security and identity. This interview provides non-French speakers a unique insight into Mr Foucher's ideas which he has thoroughly discussed in numerous French publications:

Michel Foucher: Borders, security and identity

"Fear and policies of (in)security are the main drivers for fencing in the border scene which looks like a counter-model for the 'borderless world'."

Emel Akçali on ethnic conflicts

April 2009

Dr Emel Akçali (University of Birmingham) gives her view on the role of globalisation, world systems theory, mental maps and other concepts in analysing ethnic-territorial conflicts:

Emel Akçali: Ethnic-territorial conflicts, Environmental Peacemaking, Mental Maps

All Pages in this Section

Summer School - Country Risk Analysis

Scholars A-E

• Emel Akçali: Ethnic-territorial conflicts, Environmental Peacemaking, Mental Maps
• Jonathan Armstrong: State terrorism - definition, geographic spaces and place destruction
• Gérard Dussouy: International Relations, realism and liberalism
• Leonhardt van Efferink: Nation, nationalism and state 1 - Greek city-states, Max Weber, Peace of Westphalia
• Leonhardt van Efferink: Nation, nationalism and state 2 - Modernism, Ethno-Symbolism, Primordialism
• Leonhardt van Efferink: Nation, nationalism and state 3 - process, sentiment, language, movement, ideology?
• Stuart Elden: Territory, terror and sovereignty

Scholars F-G

• Juliet Fall: Boundaries - processes, practices and typologies
• Michel Foucher: Borders, security and identity
• Jon Fox: Nationalism, social constructivism, modernists, ethno-symbolists
• Jon Fox: Nationalist elites, representations, reception theory, social media, sports
• Patri Friedman: Permanent autonomous ocean communities
• Martin Geiger: International Migration - Management, Organization and Policy

Scholars H-R

• Matthew Hannah: Germany's census boycott, police tactics, oppression, biopolitics
• Matthew Hannah: Information Age, Collective Action, Self-Determination, Citizenship
• Daniel Lambach: Failed States - definitions, causes, concepts, local governance
• Daniel Lambach: Failed States - institutionalization, democratisation, intervention
• Igor Okunev: Federalism, autonomy and conflict resolution

Scholars S-Z

• Jamie Scudder: Territorial integrity 1 - modern states and the international system
• Jamie Scudder: Territorial integrity 2 - contingent sovereignty and Afghanistan
• Jamie Scudder: Territorial integrity 3 - humanitarian interventions and R2P
• Jamie Scudder: Territorial integrity 4 - statehood, rule of law and peoples
• Michael Skey: National identity, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, globalisation
• Michael Skey: Nation, media representations, audiences, models, studies, influence
• David Storey: Territories, landscapes, spaces, places, states, borderless world
• Michael Strauss: Territorial leasing and boundary conflicts
• William Worster: Sovereignty - two competing theories of state recognition

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