{"id":309,"date":"2014-03-07T16:37:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T21:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=309"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:21:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:21:33","slug":"self-determination-a-mobius-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2014\/03\/07\/self-determination-a-mobius-strip\/","title":{"rendered":"Self Determination – A Mobius Strip?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Noah Marks\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At every press conference and in every newspaper article about the rapidly changing developments in Ukraine, leaders and analysts are struggling to adapt and apply World War II and Cold War era terminology to a globalized, interconnected world. Specifically, the term \u201cself-determination\u201d has been nearly turned inside out between Russian declarations and American warnings. Given the revolutionary milieu (e.g. Arab Spring), understanding this critical term\u2019s history reveals deep irony in its present use and demonstrates the need to develop more accurate terminology.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-determination\u201d was first embraced as a unified concept in the UN charter.\u00a0 Specifically, the charter cites the concept as something exercised by \u201cpeoples.\u201d (Neither \u201dself-determination\u201d nor \u201cpeoples\u201d is defined.) Many subsequent human rights treaties cite the concept, reiterating and constructing its \u201cpeoples\u201d-vested nature.<\/p>\n

Until the end of the Cold War, \u201cself-determination\u201d applied only to colonies. As de-colonization occurred, the term was used to refer to the right of formerly colonized people to independently determine their political status. That status included the system of government that controlled their sovereignty. Notably, a \u201cpeople\u201d was a colony unit, ignoring internal demographics.<\/b> This use was reified by many International Court of Justice opinions regarding the independence of emerging nations (e.g. East Timor<\/a>, Namibia\/S.W. Africa<\/a>, Palestine<\/a>). (See Damrosch, Henkin, Pugh, Schachter, and Smit, International Law<\/span>)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Between the USSR\u2019s breakup and today\u2019s Ukrainian crisis, however, the concept has expanded in response to a world nearly devoid of colonies. This is particularly evident in Russian comments<\/a> that Crimea itself has a right to self-determination. Their comments reflect the increasing contention that individual demographic groups within a sovereign nation have their own right to self-determination<\/b>. To the extent that a nation\u2019s borders reflect colonial arbitrariness and are shoehorned into facts that exist on the ground, such a contention is not unreasonable. This Russian argument is also broadly consistent with the West\u2019s arguments regarding Kosovo (for example), and even arguments made by Qu\u00e9bec<\/a>. However, shrinking the unit of \u201cpeople\u201d to sub-sovereign nations raises the difficult question of what suffices for an ethnic minority\u2019s right of self-determination \u2013 Voting? Ethnic representatives in Government? Ethnically gerrymandered districts? National languages? Affirmative action programs in hiring and education?<\/p>\n

More importantly, it stretches credulity for Russia, Ukraine\u2019s former colonial master, to use Crimean self-determination as justification for re-invading emancipated Ukraine<\/b>. Furthermore, even construing facts more generously, the revocation of Russian as an official language of Ukraine is only minimal evidence of imminent threat to ethnic Russians in Crimea. Therefore, Russia seems to be using potential future violations of ethnic Russians\u2019 right of self-determination as justification for trampling Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty and Crimea\u2019s existing right of self-determination (e.g. will Russia allow all Crimeans to vote in May\u2019s planned Ukrainian election?).<\/p>\n

The incoherence of applying \u201cself-determination\u201d to the modern world increases when Crimea is viewed in context \u2013 while the number of sovereign nations continually increases, the colonial power vacuum is simultaneously being replaced by intergovernmental agreements and structures (e.g. EU, NAFTA, OPEC, Putin\u2019s Russia, China, the African Union). It\u2019s not hard to see why such a world needs new, accurate, and precise language to describe policy goals, human rights, and political realities. Indeed, language matters. The more contorted \u201cself-determination\u201d becomes, the more its meaning disconnects from its foundational value: the right of a nation\u2019s people to control their own political processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Noah Marks\u00a0 At every press conference and in every newspaper article about the rapidly changing developments in Ukraine, leaders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2014\/03\/mobius-strip.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-4Z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}