The future of self-determination and territorial integrity in the Asian Century

Abstract

The twentieth century saw the rise of two important and interrelated norms. The first is the norm of self-determination, which advances the right of stateless nations to govern themselves. The second is the norm of territorial integrity, which upholds the principle that political borders should be respected. A consequence of these norms has been an increase in secessionism, a decline in conquest, and a proliferation of states. This paper will examine the development of these norms, their interrelationship, and their prospects for the future. Attention will be given to three important questions: (1) Under what conditions does a norm endure beyond a power transition? (2) How likely is an ascendant China or India to support the norms? (3) What does a power transition and the corresponding support of these norms augur for the future of secession, conquest, and the number of sovereign states?

Secession and Self-Determination

“…Although a number of states supported the idea of "remedial secession" in their submissions to the ICJ for Advisory Opinion on the Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo (2010), these were too few to reflect a general international opinion or even customary international law (Meester 2010). In fact, state practice indicates an attitude against secessions outside colonial and foreign occupation contexts for fear of destabilizing the international system and causing violent conflicts (Bereketeab 2014;Griffiths 2014). As noted by Klabbers (2019), in the Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965Mauritius in (2019, the ICJ has connected the right to self-determination so much to decolonization that "self-determination and the right to decolonization come close to being one and the same thing, with the important corollary that self-determination cannot be invoked in other, non-colonial settings.…”

Drifting between accommodation and repression: explaining Indonesia's policies toward its separatists

“…The Jakarta Post (Davidson, 2016). Although whether the emphasis on the right to self-determination will continue in the 21 st century is unclear (Griffiths 2014), these international pressures might eventually become another 'pebble in the shoe' for Indonesia (Alatas 2006). At that point, it is likely that Widodo will try in earnest to solve the conflict, but the question as to whether he will 32 become a second Wahid or a second Yudhoyono remains to be seen.…”