An Analysis of State Sovereignty's Influence on International Systems

This report provides an in-depth analysis of state sovereignty within the context of international relations. It explores the definition and significance of sovereignty, highlighting its internal and external aspects. The report delves into the positive impacts of state sovereignty, such as enabling independent decision-making in areas like trade, law, and defense, and fostering relations between states. It also examines the negative effects, including increased complexity in trade relations, hindering globalization, and potential conflicts arising from differing national interests. The report uses examples to illustrate the concepts and concludes by emphasizing the importance of state sovereignty in maintaining balance within the international system. The report discusses the role of sovereignty in the international system, their advantages and disadvantages to a country, economy, or state.

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International Relations
2/11/2019

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
State Sovereignty...................................................................................................................................1
Positive affect of state sovereignty on International system..................................................................2
Negative affect of state sovereignty on International system.................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The world has changed and it political environment has changed drastically. This change in
the political environment has affected the sovereignty of many smaller states. The big and
powerful countries are threatening the sovereignty of other weaker states. This is affecting the
international system. The report brings about the discussion on understanding and analysing
the concept of sovereignty in the international systems within a country. The term
sovereignty refers to the full right and power of a governing body over itself, and ensuring no
interference from outside sources or bodies (Jeffrey, 2012). In other words, it can be stated as
sovereignty means the power given to govern a state or state which controls itself. In this
respect, there are two aspects of sovereignty which consists of internal and external
sovereignty. In this context, internal sovereignty explains that some individuals or group has
the right over the final legal authority to command. Thus, the report will bring about the
discussion on the role of sovereignty in the international systems, and their advantages and
disadvantages to a country, economy, or state.
State Sovereignty
The concept of state sovereignty defines that the states are in total control of all the people
and the people and property within their territory. In addition, state sovereignty also includes
that the states are equal as states, and they have equal right to perform as a state and make
decisions irrespective of any difference as like land masses (Warren, 2014). Therefore, it
states that each state can function separately and have equal rights as others, so they cannot
interfere with the internal affairs of another state.
State sovereignty has four main or important features such as territory, population,
government, sovereignty. One of the major aspects of benefit of the state sovereignty is that it
has been considered as the most significant attribute, as it benefits the state in terms of self-
sufficiency in the frames of the territory (Ronzoni, 2012). The aspect of sovereignty is crucial
for understanding and dealing with the international relations and in context to business
organisations.

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Positive affect of state sovereignty on International system
In international system, there are many sovereign state working together to achieve larger
goals. It is seen that countries that are having larger power gains control of the international
systems. When a state remains sovereign they can take decisions as per their choice. This can
be in any terms i.e. trade, law, defence, political goals, community development, economic
and other terms. This guarantees a country and the government running in it to take all the
decisions as per their choice, goals and their aims (Friedman, Hochstetler and Clark, 2012).
This helps companies to improve the situations in their international relations. All the
decisions are taken by the countries on the basis of their own requirements. This is also true
with countries making relations with each other.
To discuss and state the benefits of the sovereign states, it has been analysed that sovereignty
leads to the development of relations between different states. The concept of state
sovereignty provides the benefits in terms of making authoritative decisions, or decisions
related to the war. It is implied in number of ways, such as if a state supports or sponsors the
issues of terrorism, develops the weapons of mass destruction, considers the aspect of
sovereignty (Zenović, 2012).
Another major benefit of the state sovereignty in the international relations is that it ensures
the peace between amongst states, with different internal political systems. The major
international systems have developed on the aspects of how sovereignty has evolved, and the
way one sovereign states overpower or govern other state (Dobos, 2012). Thus, it describes
the most important benefit or advantage of the state sovereignty in terms of supreme power,
authority, or absolute power, which determines the level of autonomous decision-making and
democracy.
Sovereignty and International law is an important concept, which explains the aspect, that the
doctrine of sovereignty, as it had major influence on the maintenance of relations within
states. The difficulties under the aspect of state sovereignty and democracy within states,
mentions that the sovereign is not responsible for anybody, and neither it is bound by any
laws; thus it is synonym to the aspect of unrestricted power. Moreover, state sovereignty
gives the freedom or assurance of their fundamental rights, which is thus an important feature
of the popular sovereignty (Laidi, 2012).
State sovereignty in terms of the international relations relieves or provides liberty to the
people or citizens from the aspect of oppression from other states. Sovereignty is included

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under the legal and political category that describes the competency or ability of the state in
the areas of the domestic and foreign policy. The countries that are not sovereign are not able
to take decisions that can benefit them as a country and improve the condition of the people
living in that state (Bartelson, 2014). They cannot grow with the speed that they are capable
of. Their resources also go into the hands of other states. This disturbs the balance in the
international system where everyone gets equal opportunity to grow as a country irrespective
of the power at the world forum. Every region has their own culture and own set of
challenges hence when a country is facing any kind of challenges, they themselves should
have right to take their own decisions. This helps them in saving from the situation and hence
would help the international community to maintain balance in the trade. For instance UK
took the decision of Brexit because they felt that staying in EU can hamper their economic
growth but since Ireland is not a Sovereign state hence they had to come out of EU
irrespective of the fact that whether they want to stay outside of it or not.
State sovereignty ensures that countries can have deals with other countries so as to meet
each other requirements. This also helps the countries to find out the challenges they are
facing in their country and then talk with other nations so as to overcome the challenges they
are facing (Anaya and Puig, 2017). It is also seen that people migrate from one country to
another in search of work and other aspects. State Sovereignty ensures that citizens of one
nation get respected in other. This starts at the diplomat’s level where each other ambassadors
are treated and welcomed. A non-sovereign state does not get importance from other states
hence international system gets dented. This can be understood by the fact that if one state
rules over the others then there is a serious chance that the people of ruled state will be
treated in an inferior manner.
A sovereign state is able to protect own rights which is very much essential in the
international system. This is also necessary for the peace in the whole world. This can be
understood by the fact that when one state tries to indulge in the internal affairs of any
country, there is war (Grinin, 2012). In such wars many countries gets indulged. This leads to
huge loss of life, disturbs the trade in between different nations. In past also many wars have
been fought because of this. The Indo-china war is also an example of this kind of war where
China wanted to gain territories of Tibet but India fought for their freedom. China won the
fight but it led to never ending dispute among both countries affecting the trade and other
kind of relations between both the nations. Another important aspect of the concept of state
sovereignty, it has been found linked to the competency. The concept of the sovereign rights

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is more inclusive than the volume of the competency of the public authorities. These rights
determine the aspect of legal rights that are conditioned by the needs and interests of the
citizens of the state or nation.
Sovereignty in terms of developing or maintaining the international relations, it has been
analysed that sovereignty and competence are associated with the jurisdiction of the state or
nation. In this way, it states that the aspects of state sovereignty and jurisdiction are
connected, and realized through the government’s competence, and their bodies in respective
of spheres of life (Núñez, 2014).
Negative affect of state sovereignty on International system
To determine the negative aspects from the concept of sovereignty it has been found that the
loss of sovereignty will lead to the termination of the existence of the state in terms of
international relations. To understand the meaning and issues of sovereignty as negative, first
it is essential to understand the meaning of the negative sovereignty. The concept of negative
sovereignty means that the individuals or human beings enjoy liberty, and the states possess
sovereignty (Agnew, 2017). Negative sovereignty is freedom from any issues or from any
interference; a formal legal condition. For an example, negative sovereignty or non-
intervention principle has been the basic principle in terms of classical international law.
Negative aspects of sovereignty will bring negative effect and harm for states than the aspect
of positive sovereignty. One major negative aspect of the sovereignty is that it creates the
negative, weak, uncivilized individuals who can be classified as Outlaw States.
State Sovereignty increases the complexity in the various aspects of the trade relations. This
can be understood by the fact that a sovereign state always tries to make deals on their own
terms. This leads to conflicts among the nations on various parameters and sometimes it leads
to wars (Camilleri, 2016). It is seen that even due to small issues, the tensions between the
two states arises. Too much sovereignty creates arrogance among countries which might
affect the relations among different nations.
Today’s international system is widely governed by the amount of trade between the two
countries. Due to state sovereignty companies are also not able to do business as per their
choice. They had to do trade negotiations with all the countries individually. This can be
understood by the example of European Union where it is easier for the companies to do
business as there is free trade in this region (Cohen, 2012). On the other hand, the sovereign

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state has their policies and rules related to trade. Companies had to negotiate with each
country so as to gain trade rights and do business effectively.
From the starting, States Sovereignty is acting as an obstacle in the process of globalisation or
say in the process of making world a global village. Since all states acts independently hence
making a collaborative effort for sustainable development is not easy. Countries are not able
to support each other in their causes as whenever a country tries to help others in their crisis
situation most of countries feel that it is their attack on their sovereignty (Bartelson, 2011).
For example when the Earthquake in Nepal came then India helped Nepal in various terms
that include financial help, military help and the help in terms of food and water. In this
situation Nepal did not appreciate the help of India as they thought that India is trying to get
advantage of the sovereignty. This affected the foreign relations among both the countries for
certain period of time. This often happens between strong and weaker nations where there is
imbalance in the powers among the two countries (Faiaz, 2016). Two big nations just because
they feel that their state sovereignty is hampered the go into the conflicts. They often link it
with the matter of internal security. This can be seen in the case of south-China Sea where
many countries are fighting with each other for gaining control in the region.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that State Sovereignty is very much essential for maintaining
balance in the international system. All the countries become capable of taking their own
decisions that helps them in fighting from the challenges they are facing in the market. Since
the challenges differ from country to country that no one else would be allowed to interfere in
hence maintaining a balance in the international systems. On the other hand, too much
sovereignty did not allow a world to become a better global village. In such situations trading
among different nations is not easier for the multinational companies.

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REFERENCES
Agnew, J., 2017. Globalization and Sovereignty: Beyond the Territorial Trap. Rowman &
Littlefield.
Anaya, S.J. and Puig, S., 2017. Mitigating state sovereignty: The duty to consult with
indigenous peoples. University of Toronto Law Journal, 67(4), pp.435-464.
Bartelson, J., 2011. On the indivisibility of sovereignty. Republics of Letters: A Journal for
the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts, 2(2), pp.85-94.
Bartelson, J., 2014. Sovereignty as symbolic form. Routledge.
Camilleri, J., 2016. Sovereignty discourse and practice–past and future. In Re-envisioning
Sovereignty (pp. 33-50). Routledge.
Cohen, J.L., 2012. Globalization and sovereignty: Rethinking legality, legitimacy, and
constitutionalism. Cambridge University Press.
Dobos, N., 2012. Insurrection and intervention: The two faces of sovereignty. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Faiaz, M. 2016. Is State Sovereignty Diminishing or Transforming in the Globalized World?.
[Online] Available at: https://medium.com/blog-faiaz/is-state-sovereignty-diminishing-or-
transforming-in-the-globalized-world-fd48edfbc949. [Accessed on 25th February 2019]
Friedman, E.J., Hochstetler, K. and Clark, A.M., 2012. Sovereignty, democracy, and global
civil society: State-society relations at UN world conferences. SUNY Press.
Grinin, L.E., 2012. State Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization: Will it Survive?.
In Globalistics and Globalization Studies (pp. 211-237).
Jeffrey, A., 2012. The improvised state: Sovereignty, performance and agency in Dayton
Bosnia. John Wiley & Sons.
Laidi, Z., 2012. BRICS: Sovereignty power and weakness. International Politics, 49(5),
pp.614-632.
Núñez, J.E., 2014. About the Impossibility of Absolute State Sovereignty. International
Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 27(4),
pp.645-664.

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Ronzoni, M., 2012. Two conceptions of state sovereignty and their implications for global
institutional design. Critical review of international social and political philosophy, 15(5),
pp.573-591.
Warren, T.C., 2014. Not by the sword alone: Soft power, mass media, and the production of
state sovereignty. International Organization, 68(1), pp.111-141.
Zenović, P., 2012. Human rights enforcement via peremptory norms–a challenge to state
sovereignty. Riga Graduate School of Law Research Papers, (6).