Self-Determination in the early Twenty First Century A Double Edged Concept

In a world in which change is constant, the principle of self-determination is important. Through (collective) acts of self-determination, nations exercise the right to govern themselves. At present the nation-state system with which we are familiar faces several challenges. In Western Europe, sub-state nationalism is on the rise. In the Middle East and North Africa, the state system bequeathed by former colonial powers faces increasing threats from pan-Islamist movements. Overall, the established order faces unprecedented uncertainties. The scholars who have contributed to this volume assess the merits, limitations and trajectories of self-determination in the twenty-first century, pointing to the paradoxes and anomalies that are encompassed by what at first sight is a simple and seductive concept. From the perspective of the twenty-first century and informed by a wealth of experience each of the contributors to this volume offers some valuable and intriguing observations on the future of self-determination and the movements its call engenders. This book was published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

1. Introduction Karl Cordell Self-determination and the End of History 2. The Daily Plebiscite as 21st-Century Reality Aviel Roshwald 3. Paradoxes of violence and self-determination Matthew Anthony Evangelista 4. From Independent Statehood to Minority Rights: The Evolution of National Self-determination as an International Order Principle in the Post-State Formation Era Oded Haklai The Dangers of Self-Determination 5. Self-determination: The Democratization Test Amitai Etzioni 6. Self-determination as a Technology of Imperialism: The Soviet and Russian Experiences Mark R. Beissinger 7. The Confused Compass: From Self-determination to State-determination Uriel Abulof Self-Determination and the Politics of Identity 8. The Right to Self-determination as a Claim to Independence in International Practice Mikulas Fabry 9. Constructing Identity through Symbols by Groups Demanding Self-determination: Bosnian Serbs and Iraqi Kurds Zeynep Kaya and Outi Keranen 10. The Social Bases of Support for Self-determination in East Ukraine Elise Giuliano 11. Self-determination and Majority–Minority Relations in Deeply Divided Societies: Towards a Comparative Analytical Framework Ilan Peleg Self-determining the State 12. Stateness, National Self-determination and War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century Benjamin Miller 13. Self-determination in the Twenty-first Century Montserrat Guibernau 14. A Brief History of Self-determination Referendums Before 1920 Matt Qvortrup 15. Conclusion: In Search of a Common Ground Between Self-determination and Grand Strategy Wolfgang Danspeckgruber and Uriel Abulof

Karl Cordell is Professor of Politics at Plymouth University UK. He has numerous publications in the fields of German politics, German-Polish relations and the politics of nationalism and ethnicity. He is also co-editor of the journals Civil Wars and Ethnopolitics. Uriel Abulof is an assistant professor of Politics at Tel-Aviv University and a senior research fellow at Princeton University’s LISD / Woodrow Wilson School. He studies political legitimation and violence, focusing on nationalism, democratization, revolutions and ethnic conflicts. Abulof's first book Living on the Edge: The Existential Uncertainty of Zionism (Haifa University Press) received Israel’s best academic book award, and he recently completed his second book, The Mortality and Morality of Nations (Cambridge University Press).