The Foreign Policy of Counter Secession

Abstract

This book examines the ways in which states attempt to prevent the recognition of territories that have unilaterally declared independence? Analysing the efforts of the governments of Serbia, Georgia and Cyprus to prevent the international recognition of Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and northern Cyprus, the work draws on in depth interviews with a number of leading policy makers to explain how each of the countries has designed, developed, and implemented its counter recognition strategies. After explaining how the principle of the territorial integrity of states has tended to take precedence over the right of self-determination, it examines the range of ways countries facing a secessionist threat can prevent recognition by other states and considers the increasingly important role played by international and regional organisations, especially the United Nations, in the recognition process. Additionally, it shows how forms of legitimisation or acknowledgement are also central elements of any counter-recognition process, and why steps to prevent secessionist entities from participating in major sporting and cultural bodies are given so much attention. Finally, it questions the effects of these counter recognition efforts on attempts to solve these territorial conflicts by highlighting the extent to which counter recognition policies can lead to isolation, alienation and further estrangement between the parent state and the breakaway territory.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 193 citations exist upstream.