Sovereignty

Sovereignty: the power to govern a place. A person or organization with the recognized right and ability to make and enforce laws for a place can be said to have sovereignty over that place. The mere claim of sovereignty is not the same as sovereignty; if a government is unable to enforce its laws in a place, then the government is not sovereign there. Unless a government’s sovereignty is generally recognized by the people living in the place where sovereignty is claimed, and by other sovereign states with whom it shares borders, then that sovereignty is, at best, only partial and at worst, fictitious.

At the end of the First World War, several newly sovereign states emerged from the defeated empires of eastern and central Europe: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. On September 1, 1939 the Nazis began the Second World War in Europe with the invasion of Poland. Following a secret agreement made some months earlier between the Nazis and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Army invaded Poland from the east on September 17. The two states divided Poland between them. The government of Poland escaped into exile in London. Not long thereafter, the rest of Europe fell into the hands of the Nazis. The Baltic states fell under Soviet control in August of 1940 and were formally annexed by the Soviet Union. Less than a year later, in June 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union and seized control of the Baltic states. By 1945, the German Army had been driven back and the Soviets re-asserted their claims of sovereignty. Meanwhile, governments in exile were set up in London which claimed to be the legitimate governments for all of these conquered states.

As governments in exile, these odd collections of diplomats, monarchs, and government functionaries could do everything a normal government could do except actually enforce its will in the countries they represented. Some commanded substantial armies. Many made regular radio broadcasts to the home country. None could, until the Nazis were driven out, actually govern. And those governments in exile from east and central Europe, once the war had ended, found themselves still stranded far from home as the Soviets imposed their own, pro-Soviet governments over the nations they had so recently liberated from the Nazis. Sovereignty is complicated.

Sovereignty is something people have invented in order to get along with one another. Sovereign states get to establish governments, mint money, make and enforce laws, create armies and, if it suits them, go to war with one another. Sovereign states have defined boundaries—even if, on occasion, those boundaries are disputed. They have permanent populations, governments with the capacity to enforce laws within the boundaries of the state, and are generally recognized by other sovereign states as being members of this most elite of clubs.

Before the Second World War, only a small part of the world qualified for membership. The countries of Southeast Asia, almost all of Africa, the Caribbean, India and Pakistan, and the Middle East, were colonial possessions or one European power or the other. By the 1970s, outright colonial possessions would be rare. As colonies became independent—occasionally after brisk negotiation but sometimes after protracted and violent conflict—they were admitted to the UN as a mark of their status. Other sovereign states sent and received and ambassadors.

Since 1945, membership in the United Nations Organization (UN or UNO) has been the formal marker of sovereign status. In 2021 there are 193 states with full membership status.

As of this writing, there exists somewhere between 191 and 200 sovereign states in the world. The uncertainty derives largely from recognition. Rather maddeningly, a state can have all of the pre-requisites of sovereignty—government, laws, armies, and postage stamps and still not be recognized as a “real” sovereign state by one or more of its neighbors. North Korea refuses to recognize the sovereignty of South Korea. The People’s Republic of China considers the Republic of China to be a rebellious province. Both Israel and Palestine consider one another to be less than legitimate claimants to the land they occupy and regard their respective governments as unlawful interlopers. They do not get along.

In a sense, a fully sovereign state can act as it pleases within its own territory. Sovereign states can close themselves off from the world, recklessly overfish, pollute the air and water, throw dissidents into jail, commit atrocious crimes against their own people, and thumb their metaphorical noses as the rest of the world.

Every sovereign state in the world is free to do whatever it wants on the international stage. The reality, of course, is far more complicated than that. Nations have to get along. If they want to find a market for the goods their farms and factories produce, they have to be willing to buy things produced in the farms and factories of other countries. If they want to ensure the safety of their citizens while traveling abroad, they need to protect the citizens of other countries. From the days of the ancient Greeks, sovereign states have had to accept that sovereignty has limits. Among the sovereign nations of the earth, there are rules, some written, some simply understood. And the consequences of violating those international norms and traditions can be serious, ranging from diplomatic isolation to military reprisal.

In the United States and other countries with federal systems of government, member states have limited sovereignty. That sounds great, but deciding where to put those limits is a sure way to create conflict. The government established by the Articles of Confederation in 1777 avoided this conflict by giving almost no power at all to the central government. Article Three of the Articles set out a very limited unity:

Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.

Diplomacy. Most of the nations of the earth maintain diplomatic relations with one another. In most cases, sovereign states will exchange ambassadors. An ambassador is a government official of the country from which he or she is sent and represents that government’s concerns in the host country. Part of what an ambassador does is ceremonial and social, but often the personal relationships an ambassador builds as part of his job will serve both sides well in time of crisis. The embassy serves as the primary office of the ambassador and his or her staff, and is legally considered to be part of the territory of the ambassador’s home country and the diplomatic staff who work there are legally immune from the laws of the host country. In addition to an embassy, which is usually near the capitol of the host country, the diplomatic staff may also work at a consulate. Consulates are usually found in major cities where the consular personnel provide services to citizens living or working overseas, or to residents of the host country who want to visit or do business in the consulate’s home country. Most diplomatic and consular personnel are highly trained professionals with a deep understanding of diplomacy and of their host country. In the United States, the Department of State is responsible for diplomatic relations, passports, and other elements of international affairs.

Much of the work of diplomacy takes place through supranational organizations such as the United Nations.

Trade. The United States grows an enormous amount of corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton, far more than Americans can consume. Americans manufacture a wide variety of goods, from ships to cars to microchips, many of which are exported. Even American television shows and movies are popular around the world. On the other hand, outside of Hawaii, The United States produces no coffee, and a single plantation near Charleston is the sole producer of tea in the United States. The rest is grown elsewhere and imported for American consumers to enjoy. The United States imports many goods, not because they cannot be produced here, but because they can be made more cheaply elsewhere. And other countries buy our products for precisely the same reason. This is the basis of international trade.

But international trade is still complicated and often controversial. From the end of the Second World War into the 1970s, the United States sold more goods abroad than it imported, giving it a positive balance of trade. But beginning in the 1970s, the balance of trade began to change. Other countries, especially Japan and, eventually China, began to produce and sell many of the products Americans had been producing, often at lower cost and sometimes, higher quality. When this happens, countries have several options. They can adopt protectionist policies which restrict specific imports from other countries, usually by imposing a tariff or tax on the imported commodities. Naturally, however, a country whose exports are being hit with a tariff will respond with tariffs of its own, bringing about a trade war and often harming the economies of both countries. At this writing, the United States has a negative balance of trade meaning that it imports more than it exports.

American policy since the 1990s has advocated free trade policies. Free trade agreements such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (1994) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2020), allow goods and services to be traded across international borders with a minimum of interference. The theory behind free trade holds that, when countries trade freely, more wealth will be produced for everyone involved. Textile workers in South Carolina and shoe makers in Maine, all of whom saw their jobs disappear overseas, tend to have far less positive feelings toward free trade.

Conflict. Sovereign nations do not always get along. Border disputes, trade disputes, and ideological conflicts are just a few of the issues that can bring countries into conflict with one another. Resolving these conflicts peacefully is most often the work of diplomats and politicians. Resolving them militarily is the work of soldiers and sailors.

Most conflicts are resolved peacefully, even among states that are generally hostile to one another. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union each had about 30,000 nuclear weapons pointed at one another. Both considered the other to be mortal enemies. Nonetheless, these two nuclear powers were able to negotiate several treaties and agreements during this time to reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons, end above ground testing of nuclear weapons, and, in general, to reduce the likelihood of starting World War III. This was possible because both sides found that they had common interests. Both knew that any nuclear war would destroy both countries—and much of the rest of the planet—so they worked together to resolve at least some of their conflicts peacefully.

Sovereign states have a variety of ways of getting other sovereign states (even if they are generally hostile) to cooperate. Sometimes it is a simple matter of asking them to make a statement, or not make a statement, or to take an action (or not), in exchange for a favor in return. During the Cold War, spies had a tendency to fall into enemy hands. While such secret agents had no protection under international law, they could be imprisoned or killed, and sometimes they were. However, when both sides found themselves holding spies, it was often possible to work out a quiet trade that benefitted both sides. The Glienicke Bridge, which crossed from East to West Germany, was used several times to swap spies held by either side in the forty-years long conflict.

And sometimes, of course, diplomacy fails. But even when countries resort to warfare to resolve their differences, rules still apply. The Geneva Conventions are a series of international agreements (the first was in 1863) that codified the world’s expectations for the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war, non-combatants (such as medical personnel and chaplains) and the wounded.

Existing somewhere between diplomacy and warfare is the world of the secret agent. Most, if not all, countries find ways to gather intelligence on their neighbors and adversaries. Sometimes this is simply a matter of reading their newspapers and making friends among the other nation’s diplomats, journalists, and leaders. Such work is often done by diplomatic personnel who make no secret of their activity. They have legal status and if they cross over into illegal espionage (or spying) the worst consequence they will suffer is expulsion from the target country. Nobody makes movies about this kind of spying.

Secret agents, on the other hand, are known as “illegals” in the trade. Some come to the target country on the pretext of conducting business or conducting research, sometimes traveling under a false passport. Their goal is to get to know government officials, students, soldiers, and others who can be “turned” to spying on their own country. The most effective spy, after all, is someone who is already trusted with his or her nation’s secrets. This is extremely dangerous and difficult work, as the secret agent has no legal protection and is asking people to betray their own country. But when they succeed, the payoff in terms of intelligence gathered can be enormous (or disastrous, depending on ones point of view. The most famous modern spy (famous because his treachery was eventually discovered) was Kim Philby, a senior member of Great Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (known simply as MI6) during the Cold War. While pretending to defend Britain from Soviet attempts at espionage, he was actively betraying his country’s secrets to the Soviet Union. Although his treachery was uncovered, he was able to escape to the Soviet Union where he lived out the rest of his life.

In the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency is responsible for the work of “human assets” in gathering “human intelligence” (known as “humint” in the trade. But there are many other ways to find out what is happening in a potentially hostile country. “Signals Intelligence” keeps track of radio, television, and other transmissions from the target country. This can include listening into commercial or state-controlled radio and tv broadcasts, but more often targets military radio communications. Since military communications are often encoded, much of the work of sigint involves code breaking. In the United States, the National Security Administration (NSA) does much of the work of intercepting and decoding signals intelligence.