The Realist Prism: Syria, Kosovo Highlight Sovereignty's Enclave Problem

At first glance, the ongoing efforts to remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria and the unrecognized referendum held in the majority-Serbian areas of northern Kosovo would not appear to have much in common. But both are symptoms of a larger problem that has accelerated in recent years: the delegitimization of the territorially defined state.

The classic definition of a state in the international system, as provided by Max Weber and incorporated into international law by the 1933 Montevideo convention, gives the national government the exclusive right to use force to secure its existence and territory. But that norm is running up against another one that has been gaining in currency in recent years -- the attempt to put strict limits on the ability of a state and regime to use violence to crush internal challenges to its legitimacy. In cases where such internal challenges either involve or create the possibility of separatist enclaves, this means that a state would no longer have carte blanche to take whatever steps are necessary to preserve its territorial integrity. ...