Forgetting Ourselves: Secession and the (im)possibility of Territorial Identity

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Lexington Books, 2004 - 181 Seiten
Secession is one of the richest veins yet to be mined in international relations. The unexplored concept of secession implicates a host of historical accomplices related to the development of industrial modernity and considerable changes in the nature of sovereignty and the state. By historicizing secession it becomes possible not only to explain the historical transformations that have led to the theoretical impasse on secession but to better articulate the possibilities for current transformative interactions. In Forgetting Ourselves, Linda Bishai thoroughly examines why secession has been ignored by international relations both in theory and practice. Mainstream perspectives in international relations theory have, up to this point, questioned neither state formation nor the inside/outside divide of state sovereignty. Bishai, however, historicizes and questions the concept of secession itself, and the component assumptions of territoriality and identity upon which it rests. Forgetting Ourselves places secession in its proper historical context as something possible only in the modern era and only perceived as a global threat within the last century. Bishai argues that understanding the historic contingency of secessionist conflict allows us to contemplate an alternative vision of international relations in which the violence associated with controlling territory is no longer necessary for validating political identities.

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Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

If at First You Dont Secede International Relations Theory and Its Shortcomings
7
Why the Patient Cannot Be Cured
31
States Taking Place History and the Territorialization of Politics
57
Begging to Differ Patriots Nationalists and Minorities
85
Secessionist Performances Narrating Otherness
109
InConclusion Forgetting and the Theory and Practice of the Self
139
Bibliography
165
Index
175
About the Author
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Autoren-Profil (2004)

Linda Bishai is Assistant Professor of international relations at Towson University in Maryland where she teaches courses on international law, force and aggression, and international relations. Bishai was a research fellow on issues of intervention at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs.

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