The Law And Politics Of Engaging De Facto States

This comprehensive volume is the first systematic effort to explore the ways in which recognised states and international organisations interact with secessionist ‘de facto states’, while maintaining the position that they are not regarded as independent sovereign actors in the international system. It is generally accepted by policy makers and scholars that some interaction with de facto states is vital, if only to promote a resolution of the underlying conflict that led to their decision to break away, and yet this policy of ‘engagement without recognition’ is not without complications and controversy. This book analyses the range of issues and problems that such interaction inevitably raises. The authors highlight fundamental questions of sovereignty, conflict management and resolution, settlement processes, foreign policy and statehood. This book will be of interest to policy makers, students and researchers of international relations. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

The secessionist entities that emerged out of the turbulent upheavals in the 1990s in the South Caucasus have, over many years and with enormous external assistance, successfully defied the jurisdiction of their metropolitan states. As entities that have attained a status of de facto statehood, they epitomize unresolved conflicts between core principles and doctrines in public international law. This study addresses the interplay between law and politics against this context and problematizes false dichotomies that have arguably hindered the transformation of these territorial disputes. The author devotes particular attention to different ways of engagement with the de facto states below the level of political endorsement.

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, secessionist forces carved four de facto states from parts of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Ten years on, those states are mired in uncertainty. Beset by internal problems, fearful of a return to the violence that spawned them, and isolated and unrecognized internationally, they survive behind cease-fire lines that have temporarily frozen but not resolved their conflicts with the metropolitan powers. In this, the first in-depth comparative analysis of these self-proclaimed republics, Dov Lynch examines the logic that maintains this uneasy existence and explores ways out of their volatile predicament. Drawing on extensive travel within Eurasia and remarkable access to leading figures in the secessionist struggles, Lynch spotlights the political, military, and economic dynamics--both internal and external--that drive the existence of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, and Nagorno-Karabakh. He also evaluates a range of options for resolving the status of the de facto states before violence returns, and proposes a coordinated approach, spearheaded by the European Union, that balances de facto and de jure independence and sovereignty. Slim but packed with information and insight, this volume also offers instructive lessons about the dynamics of intrastate and ethnic conflict and the merits of autonomy and power sharing in places as diverse as Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, and Chechnya.

Secession in International Law argues that the effective development of criteria on secession is a necessity in today’s world, because secessionist struggles can be analyzed through the legal lens only if we have specific legal rules to apply. Without legal rules, secessionist struggles are dominated by politics and sui generis approaches, which validate secessionist attempts based on geo-politics and regional states’ self-interest, as opposed to the law. By using a truly comparative approach, Milena Sterio has developed a normative international law framework on secession, which focuses on several factors to assess the legitimacy of a separatist quest.

This book explains the dynamics and nature of Iraqi Kurdistan’s de facto statehood since its inception in 1991, in particular the vicissitudes de facto independence since then. The work examines de facto statehood in Kurdistan, and uncovers the dynamics of de facto statehood in Kurdistan at internal, national and international levels. Kurdistan’s de facto statehood is shown to be inherently characterised by fluidity. In this book, fluidity is defined as a highly unstable feature of de facto statehood in the relational context of non-recognition. The book includes interviews with a number of high-profile politicians and policy makers from the region. These provide unique insights into such issues as the four main factors at play in the fluidity of the de facto state of Kurdistan: the balance of power between Erbil and Baghdad; the level and form of internal fragmentation; the change of strategies to gain international recognition; and the uncertain and fluctuating external support. This book will be of much interest to students of statehood studies, Middle Eastern politics, and International Relations.

This book explores the challenges of conflict resolution in protracted conflicts and conceptualises and analyses the practice of engagement without recognition in de facto states. Increasingly, engagement without recognition is seen as a promising approach to conflict resolution in de facto states, but little is known about its implementation and results. This book addresses that lacuna and develops an analytical model to assess international engagement, focusing on implementation on the ground. This model enables a comprehensive analysis of international engagement's scope, areas, and methods. Further, the book also explores the context of engagement in de facto states, which has a significant impact on its implementation and results. In this way, the book also advances our understanding of the opportunities, obstacles, and limitations of engagement without recognition. The analysis is based on the current EU engagement in Abkhazia and draws from other cases in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and beyond and finds that international engagement with de facto states is more comprehensive and multifaceted than previously known. However, it also faces some distinct challenges and produces modest results. Finally, the book provides practical recommendations on how to better utlilise the peacebuilding potential of engagement without recognition. This book will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, statehood, peace and conflict studies, and international relations.

This volume ... systematically considers the nature of the state, the concept of sovereignty and the challenges globalisation and cosmopolitanism.--Provided by publisher.

Originally published in 1998, International Society and the De Facto Society explores the phenomenon of de facto statehood in contemporary international relations. The de facto state is almost the inverse of what Robert Jackson has termed the ‘quasi-state’. The quasi-state has an ambassador, a flag, and a seat at the United Nations, but it does not function positively as a viable governing entity. Its limitations though, do not detract from sovereign legitimacy. The de facto state, on the other hand, lacks legitimacy yet effectively controls a given territorial area and provides governmental services to a specific population. The book engages in a birth, life, and death or evolution examination of the de facto state.