The Shifting Sands of Sovereignty: A Modern Political Analysis

This essay critically examines the relevance of sovereignty in contemporary international relations, arguing that it faces significant challenges. It defines sovereignty and its historical context, then delves into the impacts of globalization, multinational corporations, and external influences on national autonomy. The essay highlights how economic pressures, foreign direct investments, and international alliances affect a nation's ability to maintain control over its internal affairs and policies. The role of social media, external ideologies, and the influence of powerful nations are also discussed, alongside examples of how these factors impact countries like the UK, Syria, and South Korea. The essay concludes by suggesting that the traditional understanding of sovereignty is diminishing as a result of these forces.

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Is Sovereignty an outdated political principle?
World politics has changed and this change in the world politics have changed the dynamics
in different nations. It also has impact on the internal policies of any particular nation.
Sovereignty is understood as the full right and power of the governing body over itself
without any kind of interference from the external bodies. In the political terms it is
understood as a substantive term that is associated with designating of supreme authority over
some polity. In the international law, the concept of sovereignty is understood as the exercise
of the power by any state. Sovereignty is something that has helped the political environment
in any nation to not get affected by the international politics and the change in the
environment (Moses, 2014). In the past there were two kinds of political discussion whether
any external factor is challenging the sovereignty in any nation. This helped any country to
become an ideal state where the control of its boundaries lies in power holders of the country
itself. Nations have fought wars in the past just to protect the sovereignty of theirs. It has
been seen that stronger political powers have threatened the sovereignty of the weaker
political states and this is the major reason why sovereignty has been in the centre of the
political principles in any nation (Ţuţuianu, 2012). Due to threat of sovereignty the concepts
such as equality of the nations have become unrealistic and dysfunctional. In this essay there
will be analysis about the fact that for the modern day politics has sovereignty has shifted
towards being an outdated principle.
There are several principles related to politics in this sovereignty and nationalism had been
one of the most famous of them. Sovereignty has been used in the nation as support theory
for nationalism which has been the greater political force to unite to the people. Since the
theories and principles of politics have understood that without nationalism it is hard to bind
the state and hence showing the fear of the sovereignty is very much critical for the success
of the organisation. It is also to be understood that previously there were only one or two
parties that were at the command centre of the political discourse in the country hence
implementing sovereignty was not hard. Things started to change when the multi-party
system started (Cohen, 2012). However it is not the only factor neither the major factor that
has shifted sovereignty from its base in any nation. It is to be understood that why
sovereignty is an important principle for the politics. The major factor in this regard is the
fact that without sovereignty it is not easier for the political parties even to gain control over
the country or do politics because it is the state itself that gives them the power to do politics
and gain political powers. Without sovereignty external forces or political powers will gain

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control over any nation’s politics and the discourse. After thousands of wars that have been
fought between the smaller powers and the bigger powers in the past just to gain the control
over their political regime, it is now the time for the downfall of this political principle
(Přibáň, 2016). The downfall is slow but yet considerable changes can be seen. World War 1
and World War 2 have been the perfect example of it.
In the time when the politics in various nations have become dirty, the principles such as
sovereignty have been put on the side-lines of the politics. There are several threats that are
confronting the nations all across the globe and sovereignty of the nation seems to be one of
the most critical factors that is threatening a nation. The major driver for the increase in the
threat is the globalisation as due to globalisation there are many companies that have crossed
borders and there is an increase in the chance that there is linkage in the interests (Heywood,
2014). Due to this there must be change in the political scenarios within the nation due to
external factors. In today’s time politics is highly influenced by the businesses in the nation
and it is seen that external interests are increasing in the nation’s politics. Due to this
sovereignty is under the threat. The broader understanding of this can be gained from the fact
that companies in any nation are running their economies and hence they are influencing the
politics in the nation as well. In the time when the countries are attracting larger numbers of
foreign direct investments, these are acting as an external source that is having impact on the
growth of any nation. Since most of the companies are from the bigger or developed nations
like United States of America hence this country is almost running the economy of many
countries. Due to this other smaller countries gets dependent on these bigger nations for their
interest. This is the major reason why sovereignty has been side-lined in the world politics
especially in the nations that are dependent on the bigger nations (Torres-Spelliscy, 2017).
Bigger nations are using the companies to enhance their interest in other nations and
influence the politics there.
It is to be understood that governments in various parts of the world are under the pressure of
the people to improve the condition of economy and at the same time they will have to create
new opportunities for employment. This cannot be done without the help of the FDI in the
country or say without the help of bigger multi-nationals. Smaller countries have least
capacity to manage the economics within their country hence it is becoming difficult for them
to carry on with the sovereignty as their major political principles (Weiss, 2018). In the past
few years only when the larger numbers of countries are facing economic challenges, the role
of the industrialists are increasing especially in the areas like law making and policies. Due to

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weakening of the laws the nations are becoming the puppets of the industrialists and hence
sovereignty is at stake. There is constant increase in the influence of the external factors on
the management of resources within the nation and hence has impact on the political
scenarios in the nation (Pavel, 2014).
Apart from this it is to be understood that there are multi-party systems in different nations
and there are many political parties that are participating in this. Due to this they need funds
to contest elections. It has been said that in many of the elections that external forces are
involved in the internal elections and they are either financing the elections for the parties and
when they win they are imparting the ideologies of these external forces in their country also.
Due to this the laws of these nations are highly influenced by these external forces (Jones,
2011). In the last elections of Unites States, there had been news that there was influence of
Russia. It is to be understood that in the time of the global connectivity of people is at the
highest levels it has become easier for the external players to influence the mind-sets. This
can be done through the help of social media and other internet based platforms. It has been
seen that in the countries like UK which has been the right wing nations have got influenced
by the left wing ideologies. This has impact on the policies being made within the nation. In
the case of Brexit it is seen that people’s mind set have been influenced by the ideologies of
left.
It has also been seen that external parties are disturbing the internal piece of any nation. This
is done by funding the extremist wings in the nation. Due to the money received from other
states it is generally seen that the internal peace of the nations are being affected. The
increasing violence in the nations is the result of it. The government of these nations have
been putting the blame on the external parties for their internal problems (Cocks, 2014). Most
common examples can be seen in the case of Arab countries like Syria where the civil war is
the result of the foreign interests. USA and Russia have been blaming each other for the
violence in Syria. This is also the major reason why the government should think of the
sovereignty. It is the sovereignty of the state that can protect them from external influences
and security of the people can be ensured. Since every other powerful nations have eyes on
the resources of the other nations especially the once that are weaker. In some of the
examples like Iraq the western interest was due to oil resources that they have however once
the US allied forces won the war there was no stability in the country even till today.

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Since the political parties aims to remain in the nation for longer time hence they are not even
thinking of the sovereignty of the nation. They are applying all the political scenarios as they
have thought irrespective of whether sovereignty of the nation will be affected by their
politics or not. This is also the major reason why one party is going totally against the
national interest while showing that it is in the interest of the country (Pan, 2010). It is not
that it has started few years before rather it has been done for the decades which can be seen
in terms of the fact that ideologies like left ideologies have travelled across borders. Since
their base ideologies are from the nation that are different from the nation in which they are
following it hence the sovereignty is under a question mark. Politician these days are thinking
of only winning irrespective of the fact that whether their approach is hampering the
sovereignty of the state or not. The blame cannot alone be given on the politicians as the
people in the nation is also got influenced by the external ideologies (Caspersen, 2013). They
start protesting or indulging in other kinds of violence in the nation due to external ideas that
has been implanted in the society. It is because of this that the politics in the nation also had
to shape itself according to it.
Sovereign immunity of the nations has been challenged by the fact that one country
understands them to be better than others and more powerful and they quite often exercise
these powers also. This has impact on the sovereignty of the smaller states (Shih, 2016). For
the countries that were the part of some kinds of alliance their sovereignty is also at the stake.
This is because in the political discourse more focus will be on making the relations with
other nations rather than on the internal sovereignty and it is due to this that it has become
less relevant in the politics of any nation. It is been seen that every country now a days want
to achieve sovereignty whereas the other state wants to take control of the external state as
well. International alliances are forcing the countries to make laws in such a manner that it
affects the member state nations (Gifford, 2010). International laws have played a major role
in this regards. Internal politics are also not giving a look at whether their sovereignty will be
guaranteed if the law is made. In the countries like South Korea which is facing significant
amount of threats from the North Korea, the sovereignty of the South Korea is being taken by
the countries like United States which in the excuse of giving them military support is
playing a greater role in the development of internal politics in South Korea.
In the political principles sovereignty is also defined in terms of the fact that source of
governmental powers comes from the people (Kalmo and Skinner, 2010). This principle
states that government exists for benefitting the citizens and if the government is not

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operating as per the benefit of the citizen then the government should cease to exist. In many
countries it is seen that political parties are working for themselves where they are giving
themselves more priority than any other citizen in the nation. It is due to this that they are not
working as per the interest of the citizens rather they are working for their own development
(Gratton, 2012). The political representatives are either working so that their families are
benefitted or are working for their parties to remain in the power for longer period of time. It
is also to be noted that citizen’s participation in the decision making have been decreased.
This is the major reason why the numbers of protests within the countries is increasing.
Political parties that are in power are not listening to the demands of the people and the
political parties that aims to come in power support the protestors. It is due to this that
internal peace of the nation is being hampered.
International organisations are increasing their influence on the nations especially the internal
politics and hence that country becomes a puppet of the international organisations. This can
be seen with the example of Pakistan where they have taken loans from different countries
and the international organisation like the Asian bank and the World Bank. Due to this they
are working as per the orders from these international organisations or countries. At the
surface level they are showing that they are sovereign nation but at the lower levels there are
many policies that are made as per the external influence (Dove, 2016).
The governments like Russia have been alleged about the fact that even when they vote
against the government Putin keeps winning the elections and are coming to power.
Government is not sourcing its power from the people rather they are drawing their power
from keep winning. They are not leaving their post even when the people are not happy with
them. There is an informal anarchy that has come in the politics of the nations (Moses, 2013).
The extremist politics and politicians are making decisions that have never been taken in the
country and they are gaining powers from it. Most of the time it is not in the favour of the
nation but it does not matter for them. For them the things that mattered the most is that
whether they are getting the support of the people or not.
In the time when international relations have become the major thing for the nation,
sovereignty has been side-lined. This can be understood in terms of the fact that political
governments in various parts of the world are looking for making better international
relations with other nations. That government is becoming more popular that is able to make
better international relations with most of the countries. This is because it not only enhances

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the strength of one country but also improves their strength in the international politics
(Bartelson, 2014). This is also why the political parties are ready to weaken their sovereignty
in the interest of each other and hence making laws that favours the external factors. In the
countries that are not able to maintain their internal politics often fails to surrender their
sovereignty in the name of the becoming international alliance. One of the perfect examples
in this regards is the European Union where the EU’s government are playing major role in
the internal politics of all the nations that are the part of the EU (Oršolić Dalessio, 2014). In
order to maintain the economic stability and ensure their security from the external countries
that are from other continents, they are willing to sacrifice their own sovereignty. In the start
the influence was only on the economic policies but later the influence increased to the
political affairs as well. Individual countries in the EU are unable to make political decisions
such as making any relation with the political state in other parts of the world. This is why
they are not able to make such decisions and fails to protect their sovereignty. The
bankruptcy case of the Greece was one of the perfect examples of how the falling of any
country in terms of political or economic condition gives the chance to the other countries to
influence the sovereignty in that nation (McCormack, 2011). Even the governments are
willing to do this. Another example is of China and Sri-Lanka, where Srilanka has given one
of their port to China which has its own interest in the Indian Ocean. This has been done in
favour of economic aid that China is providing to Srilanka. This is not only putting the
security of Srilanka under the threat but it is also having impact on the sovereignty of the
nation and the government of Srilanka is also ready to accept it.
In the shadows of bigger political principles like nationalism and religious hatreds the
principles like sovereignty has been long forgotten or have made it outdated concept. The
1918’s sovereignty and the sovereignty in the 2020 have changed its meaning and it is due to
this that chances of wars between the different nations have decreased. This can be a benefit
for the modern day world but it is still a threat to the internal peace of the nations. The states
that are either poor or do not have higher amount of resources will be under greater threat of
losing their sovereignty. When any agreement is made between two countries there is a
chance that they are giving leverage to the other nation in some or the other areas (Bull,
2012). Laws and policies related to that area cannot be taken alone by that country. For
instance increasing the taxes cannot be done alone without making consent with each other.
In conclusion it can be said that Sovereignty was one of the major principles of the politics
for the long time. In the globalised era when the interdependence of the governments on each

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other has increased, the concepts such as Sovereignty in politics have been neglected.
Countries are making policies that support their international alliance and laws that weaken
their own position in the international politics. Sovereignty has weakened and interference of
the powerful states on the less powerful states has increased and governments are also
allowing it unless it does not affect their own interest.

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