Nation-States

“With many sovereign states, with no system of law enforceable among them, with each state judging its grievances and ambitions according to its own reason or desire, conflict, sometimes leading to war, is bound to occur” (Waltz 2001).

The assumption is questionable on at least five grounds. (1) Wars have many causes. (2) Many people have strong nationalistic feelings but live in countries that rarely engage in war, Sweden (despite its brief period of imperialism in the seventeenth century) and Switzerland being the usual examples. (3) Mercenaries fight many wars regardless of nationality. (4) Interstate wars are a minority of over 300 wars since 1945. One could just as easily argue that the nation-state system prevents war. None of this refutes the usefulness of the United Nations in resolving some if not all conflicts. (5) War predates the existence of nation-states² and even of civilization (Chapter 14) so at the very least they cannot be the only cause. Mass warfare conducted by nation-states appears to be a phase that lasted about two hundred years, from the French Revolution until the end of the Cold War. It followed a period of about 150 years during which European nation-states fought limited wars with professional armies and minimal casualties. Popular sovereignty and the return to professional armies in recent years have mitigated the trend, while terrorism (Chapter 15) may be a new phase.

Not incidentally, it sometimes is difficult to know what is and is not a state, how they come into being, and even how many there are, as the number often changes. Among the usual criteria are a territory, a population, issuance of currency, stamps and a passport, and diplomatic recognition.

The Vatican possesses all the characteristics of a nation and generally is considered the world’s smallest state. But, is it (Ryan 2006)? What about the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta? It has diplomatic ties with 87 countries and hopes to become a UN member by getting the number to 100. It has its own license plates (symbol SMOM), issues postage stamps, passports and currency not universally recognized, and runs dozens of hospitals and clinics worldwide. A descendant of a medieval order of crusaders, its sovereign territory currently consists of a suite above a Hermes boutique in Rome. Other mini-states include Andorra, Monaco, and San Marino.

The Principality of Sealand has its own territory, population, flag, constitution, stamps, and currency.

The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus is more important to our topic. Cyprus gained independence in 1960 under a constitution that theoretically gave the minority Turks sufficient power to prevent enosis, union with Greece. In 1963, President (and Archbishop) Makarios III proposed constitutional changes with just that goal that led to violence and division of the capital into Greek and Turkish sectors. In 1974, a small number of Greek Cypriots joined with the Greek army intending to make Cyprus part of Greece. Turkey, invoking its status as a guarantor of the treaty giving Cyprus its independence, invaded (if your sympathies are with the Greeks) or intervened (if your sympathies are with the Turks). By the time a cease-fire was achieved, the Turks had reached their planned objective, the line that today divides the island into a Greek Cypriot south (80% of the population and 60% of the island) and a Turkish Cypriot north separated by a United Nations buffer zone. The few Turkish Cypriots south of the line fled north; 156,000 Greek Cypriots who lived north of the line fled south. It is true that Turkey seized the opportunity to control the northern part of the island, but it also is true that the Greeks were the aggressors and that Turkish fears were real. Negotiations aimed at reunification have gone on intermittently since 1977.

Palestine is the most serious case. Some claim it has no right to statehood because there never was a Palestinian state. However, previous existence is not one of the recognized criteria for statehood. After all, there was a time when one could say the same about every nation. Yes, it was a province of the Ottoman Empire, but so among other nations was Iraq (three provinces, actually), whose modern borders were established by Winston Churchill. Palestine also was a colony of the British Empire, many colonies of which (along with former Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish colonies) now are recognized nations. None of this changes the real reason Palestine is denied statehood—its refusal to renounce and its continuing aggression toward Israel.

Many nations have come into being and vanished (Davies 2012). Assyria and Babylon are long gone along with more recent but short-lived nations such as Carpatho-Ukraine (which lasted less than two days in 1939), Etruria (seven years), and historically more important cases including Burgundy, Prussia, and the USSR. Even the long-lived Roman, Byzantine, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires disappeared. Mere existence sometime in the past, particularly when other states have controlled the same territory at some time or other before or after, does not create a practical claim to particular territory although other factors may combine to do so.