Fragments of Empire, Failed States
UN Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Operation, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 2012
Credit: UN Photo / Patricia Esteve
Summary
The nation-state was a seventeenth-century European invention that spread to the entire world through the various waves of colonization and decolonization; seven people out of ten in the world have a colonial past, and so-called failed states testify to the difficulty of making this model systemic. Former colonial ties endure in different forms, nationality and citizenship rarely overlap, and some peoples are still hoping for a state of their own.
Grandes découvertes et premier partage du monde
Comment: The map was drawn up from a compilation of several historical atlases. It uses a projection showing the Atlantic area where the dividing line was situated, and arbitrated by the papacy, between the two late 15th-century colonial powers (the Spanish and Portuguese empires). It shows two different land masses: the global network of Portuguese trading posts extending as far as China on one side, and the Andean territory resulting from the Spanish conquests on the other.
The nation-state was a European invention of the seventeenth century that matches up a territory, a nation and a government. Colonization and decolonization processes were responsible for the spread of this model throughout the world, with greater or lesser degrees of success. Its French-style version, in which the nation is the product of the state and jus soli applies (citizenship being granted to anyone born on state territory) often proves to be ill-adapted to states whose borders were carved up by colonial powers. Its German-style version, based on the sharing of a “hereditary” culture and on jus sanguinis (nationality being conferred by descent) led to ethnic purges and massacres during the twentieth century. In fact, nationality and citizenship rarely overlap. The tempos and means of disseminating the principle of the state have varied according to the continents, objectives and practices of both colonizers and colonized. Latin America has been divided into territorially stable independent states since the early nineteenth century.
Ends and traces of empires
With or without a war to obtain freedom from colonial rule, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires collapsed at the end of the First World War. During the second half of the twentieth century, the British, French, and Portuguese empires suffered the same fate. Finally, the break-up of the USSR and Yugoslavia during the 1990s produced about twenty new states. Altogether, almost 150 new states emerged from fourteen colonial or multinational empires.
African colonies and independence
Comment: This series of maps shows how Africa was carved up from the late 19th century to the present day. The first represents the early colonial rivalries just before the Berlin Conference (1885), during which the European powers shared the continent; the second shows the territorial result of this on the eve of World War Il, a war which was partly due to the intensification of these imperial rivalries; the third illustrates the end of the process with the more or less violent decolonization that has taken place since the late 1950s, drawing the map of present-day African states.
Throughout the world, seven people out of ten have a colonial past. Former colonial links endure and survive in different forms: public partnerships, direct foreign investment, migratory flows, national minorities, diasporas, cultural and linguistic diplomacy, academic ties and military and police support. This cooperation can be constructed or perceived as a new form of imperialist allegiance, or even interference. Since the 1980s, approaches designed by the discipline of postcolonial studies were instigated in Anglophone countries and former British colonies and have contested Western ethnocentrism, restoring a place to the history and culture of formerly colonized countries and reassessing the cultural consequences of colonial action (encountering otherness, inter-race representation, hybridization, transculturalism, etc.).
“Failed” states?
With the ending of East-West polarization, the decline of Third Worldism and the difficulties of postcolonial states, the notion of collapsed state has emerged (an expression coined by the American political scientist William Zartman in 1995), of which Somalia is an example. Over the course of the same period, the World Bank appealed for good governance in countries of the South (in its 1997 Report). Then the notion of failed state was used to describe those states that were unable to ensure control over their national territory, to provide basic services for their populations (water, education, health, etc.), and protect them from outside interference.
From September 11, 2001, this notion was increasingly instrumental in the fight against terrorism, thought to be fostered by failed states. Faced with this threat to peace, all backers and international organizations had to act in order to rebuild these states (state building). These ideas were the result of expert assessments designed for conservative governments, but were criticized by many social science researchers for their lack of clarity, their ethnocentric and ideological bias, and their lack of interest in the social pathologies undermining the countries concerned. The Failed States Index, devised in 2005 by an American think tank, combined 12 variables relating to society, economics, and politics, in order to describe and classify states said to be fragile, failed, or failing. Since then, many other more complete indicators have been put forward, but these do not stray from the concept of universalizing a classic Westphalian model, the failure of which is precisely demonstrated by these new states. Accelerated globalization, the increase in cross-border flows of people, the growing role of non-state actors, the failure of development policies, and worsening inequality all condemn the failure of these rebuilding and action programs by states whose social problems generate conflicts that then become international ones.
The General Assembly of the UN declared in 1960 that all peoples have the right to freely determine their political status and economic, social, and cultural development. Today, not only does the process of decolonization linger on, but many peoples do not see themselves as belonging to the states whose territories were carved up by colonial powers in disregard for their differences and rights. There are numerous minorities (quantitative or qualitative, according to language, ethnic group, religion, etc.) of very diverse status throughout the world. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2006-2007) reaffirmed these principles and rights, but its effects have been slow to materialize. Stateless persons have tried to organize themselves worldwide to make their voices heard, particularly since 1991 within the UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) which in 2017 stated it had 44 members ranging from indigenous peoples to minorities, non-recognized states and occupied territories.
- nation > Nation
- Political community based on an awareness of shared characteristics and/or a will to live together. It is common practice to contrast political and cultural concepts of the nation – which in practice are mutually influential and tend to converge. In the political concept, the nation is invented and produced by a state: the territory precedes the nation and defines its contours (this is known as the French concept, based on the republican melting pot and jus soli, right of the soil). In the cultural understanding of nation, a shared common culture produces the nation. The national project consists in bringing this population together on a single territory (the cultural or romantic or German concept of the nation, based on jus sanguinis, right of blood). The latter concept intrinsically produces conflicts and can lead to ethnic cleansing or genocide (Nazi Germany, Greater Serbia, etc.).
- Colonization
- A historical process by which Europe established deep links with the rest of the world. From the late fifteenth century (the Age of Discovery), a vast movement began for economic, political, and cultural domination of the world, first by Spain and Portugal and then by England, France, and Holland, which from the late sixteenth century started to compete for possession of colonial wealth. A second wave of colonization took place in the nineteenth century, when all the countries of South America that had been under the first two empires were already independent. The Industrial Revolution encouraged the search for new markets, and France and England jockeyed for a share of part of Asia and Africa. The colonized territories had different statuses (dominions, protectorates, or direct rule).
- borders > Border
- The line that marks the limit of state sovereignty, as distinct from the hazy boundary zones or limits of empires. In no way natural, these long-term historic constructs, which can be more or less endogenous and more or less subject to dispute and violence, are being profoundly altered by contemporary globalization processes. Regional integration processes are transforming and diminishing them – even erasing them, and pushing them back; transnational actors are crossing them or bypassing them; at the same time, they are being closed to migration, while new borders (social, cultural) are being constructed.
- powers > Power
- Ability of political actors to impose their will on others. Comparable to the notion of authority within a nation, power is never absolute but has its existence in a relationship, since power relations are a matter of each actor’s perception of the other. Power is key to the realist approach to international relations, where it is understood in geostrategic terms (hard power is based on force and coercion, especially of a military nature). The transnationalist approach offers a more diversified vision including factors of influence (Joseph Nye’s soft power exerted in economic, cultural and other terms) and emphasizing the importance of controlling different orders of power, from hard to soft (Susan Strange’s “structural power”).
- citizenship > Citizen
- The origin of citizenship goes back to Antiquity, and it denotes the enjoyment of civic and political rights within democratic regimes (right to vote, right of eligibility, exercise of public freedoms). By granting rights and obligations to citizens, popular sovereignty provides the foundation for the state’s legitimacy. Citizenship is an element of social cohesion, with citizens forming a political community (theory of the social contract) to which they owe primary allegiance. Depending on the period and country, it has been refused to some sections of the population: women, slaves, the poor, the illiterate, soldiers, foreigners, or minors. The Maastricht Treaty (1992) created a European citizenship within the European Union.
- war > War
- Violent confrontation between armed groups over values, status, power or scarce resources, in which the aim of each party is to neutralize, weaken or eliminate their adversaries. This organized, collective, armed violence can be undertaken by states (via their national armies) or by non-state groups; it can bring several states into opposition (interstate war) or occur within a single state (civil war). The former, progressively codified within a legal framework, have become rare, while the latter, today primarily caused by state institutional failure, are tending to become more international in scope, to last over time (sometimes decades) and to be extremely devastating, especially for civilian populations.
- empires > Empire
- An empire, a political system based on the dissemination of a political structure with universalist pretensions, is controlled by a central power that subjugates the populations located at its periphery following military conquests. It often comprises several different national, ethnic or religious entities (examples: the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Napoleonic, Russian, Austro-Hungarian empires, etc.). Empires generally persist over time by means of economic exploitation, especially in the case of colonial empires. Empires can be distinguished from states in that they are bounded by hazy frontier areas (such as the marches, or the limes of the Roman Empire) rather than borders clearly framing a specific territory over which the political authority exclusively operates.
- minorities > Minority
- Any social group which finds itself in an inferior situation relative to a dominant group in a given society. This situation can be expressed quantitatively, but can also be defined with reference to qualitative data of a cultural nature (linguistic, religious, ethnic, national, even social minorities). Membership of a minority can be a matter of self-identification or an ascribed identity; it may bring with it various kinds of discrimination. The presence of minorities can give rise to social engineering policies (positive or negative discrimination), or demands for protection and recognition.
- diasporas > Diaspora
- A set of communities that are often dispersed over very considerable distances, but remain linked by economic, financial, and cultural exchanges, and refer to a land and culture of origin. Acceleration of the globalization process and the increased number of migrants have given new life to former diasporas (Jewish, Greek, Armenian, Chinese, Indian) as well as creating new ones (countries of the Southern hemisphere). The ability to preserve cultural references from one generation to another and independently of distance is a function of the dense international networks they construct. By extension, the term diaspora is used by governments of the South to talk about their migrant workers in the North, whose remittances to the home country contribute to GDP.
- imperialist > Imperialism
- Initially denoting a political strategy or doctrine of colonial expansion, imperialism establishes a relationship of political, economic or cultural domination of one state over one or more others. More recently the term has also been used to describe economic, cultural or legal domination by one international actor (not necessarily a state) over another (North-South relations, cultural hegemony, etc.). Concept used in particular by Marxist analysts, for whom imperialism is linked with the capitalist mode of production.
- ethnocentrism > Ethnicity
- Ethnicity is a descriptive category that appeared at the end of the 19th century, constructed by anthropologists and disseminated by colonial administrations. Unlike “race” it does not reference biological criteria but designates a group of individuals with the same origin, the same cultural tradition, whose unity is based on language, history, territory, beliefs and the awareness of belonging to an ethnic group. Ethnicity, which some have claimed to be a natural phenomenon, is in fact a social construct, externally imposed or claimed, at once arbitrary and evolving. Proposed as an exclusive identity, it becomes all the more powerful as an instrument of political mobilization when the state is in difficulty. Ethnocentrism consists in understanding the world exclusively through the lens of one’s own culture and seeking to impose this interpretation.
- otherness > Alterity
- Alterity is the state of being “other,” outside of what is represented by an individual’s characteristics or those of a given socio-political or cultural environment. It is used here mainly in a cultural and political sense.
- hybridization > Hybridization
- The act of mixing two varieties of a single species, which can, by extension, be applied to the formation of any political, religious, institutional, economic, cultural (etc.) system synthesizing different influences.
- Third Worldism > Third World
- The term Third Word, coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy, has become dated since the end of the Cold War. A reference to the Third Estate of the French Revolution (Sieyès), for Sauvy the Third World comprised those countries, mainly in the South, that were “ignored, exploited, and scorned” and “also wants to be something.” The desire of these actors to promote discussions of the North-South divide (notably in relation to development) rather than focusing solely on East-West relations reveals the political dimension of their actions.
- collapsed state > Collapsed state
- A state incapable of ensuring its population’s security (ending the social contract) and controlling its territory (end of sovereignty). At this point the country is ungoverned and the violence this generates can precipitate collapse (as in Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan, for example). However, the use of this designation by the international community can be arbitrary, too, masking strategic interests and power politics.
- governance > Governance
- Inspired by management and entrepreneurship, the expression global governance refers to the formal and informal institutions, mechanisms and processes through which international relations between states, citizens, markets and international and non-governmental organizations are established and structured. The global governance system aims to articulate collective interests, to establish rights and duties, to arbitrate disputes and to determine the appropriate regulatory mechanisms for the issues and actors in question. Governance takes various forms: global multilateral governance, club-based governance (restricted to members, e.g. G7/8/20), polycentric governance (juxtaposition of regulatory and management mechanisms operating at various levels), and so on.
- failed state > Collapsed state
- A state incapable of ensuring its population’s security (ending the social contract) and controlling its territory (end of sovereignty). At this point the country is ungoverned and the violence this generates can precipitate collapse (as in Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan, for example). However, the use of this designation by the international community can be arbitrary, too, masking strategic interests and power politics.
- terrorism > Terrorism
- A method of violent action inspiring fear (terror) and generally used in an asymmetrical relationship (the weak attack the strong). Unlike an act of war or political assassination, where violence is aimed directly at the target (the enemy), the victims of terrorism are instrumental, the terrorists’ goal being to publicize their violence in the media in order to create a climate of fear and insecurity among those who witness it, and so to generate social, legal and political chaos that will weaken the targeted states or societies. In the absence of any unanimous definition of terrorism, the term is frequently used to delegitimize the actions of opponents who do not refer to themselves as terrorists.
- peace > Peace
- The definition of peace is much debated. A restrictive definition sees peace simply as an absence of conflict (negative peace). Peace Studies reinterpreted this definition to include the conditions necessary for peace – positive peace must be an integral aspect of human society. Combined with the concept of structural violence, positive peace was then defined more broadly to include social justice. Among the different theories of peace, the sometimes criticized notion of democratic or liberal peace asserts that the liberal democracies do not go to war with each other and only fight against non-liberal states (this approach qualifies Kant’s postulate in Perpetual Peace, 1795).
- international organizations > International Organization
- In the words of Clive Archer, an IO is “a formal, continuous structure established by agreement between members (governmental and/or non-governmental) from two or more sovereign states with the aim of pursuing the common interest of the membership.” Marie-Claude Smouts identifies three characteristics of IOs: they arise out of a “founding act” (treaty, charter, statute), have a material existence (headquarters, finance, staff), and form a “coordination mechanism.
- Westphalian > Westphalia
- Signed in 1648 by the countries of Europe (except for England and Russia), the treaties of Westphalia brought an end to the Thirty Years War (Sweden, France, Spain and the Germanic Holy Roman Empire). In addition to reshaping the geopolitical map of central Europe, they enshrined new political principles: 1/ a gradual secularization of politics, 2/ the collapse of the hegemonic, imperial and Catholic policies of the Hapsburgs, which were succeeded by a concept of political and religious balance to ensure peace in Europe, 3/ the strengthening of the identity and independence of states with the establishment of precise borders recognized by all, and within which the prince or monarch was sovereign, 4/ the establishment of standing armies. The terms Westphalian “order” or “model” are used in the context of these treaties.
- actors > Actor
- An individual, group, or organization whose actions affect the distribution of assets and resources on a global scale. The state has long been considered as the main actor on the international scene, but the number of non-state actors has increased and diversified (businesses, non-governmental organizations, special interest groups, mafias, religious actors, etc.) over the past few decades. Contemporary globalization has made the relationships between these actors more complex.
- development > Development
- Definitions of development and its opposite – underdevelopment – have varied considerably according to the political objectives and ideological positions of those using these words. In the 1970s, Walt Whitman Rostow conceived of it as an almost mechanical process involving successive stages of economic growth and social improvement, whereas Samir Amin analyzed the relationships between center and peripheries, seeing the development of the former as founded on the exploitation of the latter. In Latin America, the dependency theory condemned the ethnocentrism of the universal view that the “periphery” of underdeveloped states could simply catch up through modernization. Talking of poor or developing “countries” masks the inequalities that also exist within societies (in both Northern and Southern hemispheres) and individuals’ connections to globalization processes.
- inequality > Inequality
- Unequal distribution of goods, material and/or non-material, regarded as necessary or desirable. Beyond income inequality (national, international and global), cumulative inequalities can also be measured with respect to accessing public services (healthcare, education, employment, housing, justice, effective security, etc.) and accessing property and natural resources more generally, and also relative to political expression or the capacity to respond to ecological risks. When these inequalities are based on criteria prohibited by law, they constitute discrimination.
- ethnic > Ethnicity
- Ethnicity is a descriptive category that appeared at the end of the 19th century, constructed by anthropologists and disseminated by colonial administrations. Unlike “race” it does not reference biological criteria but designates a group of individuals with the same origin, the same cultural tradition, whose unity is based on language, history, territory, beliefs and the awareness of belonging to an ethnic group. Ethnicity, which some have claimed to be a natural phenomenon, is in fact a social construct, externally imposed or claimed, at once arbitrary and evolving. Proposed as an exclusive identity, it becomes all the more powerful as an instrument of political mobilization when the state is in difficulty. Ethnocentrism consists in understanding the world exclusively through the lens of one’s own culture and seeking to impose this interpretation.
- Indigenous
- Although there is no universally accepted definition to describe indigenous or first peoples, the UN has declared that “indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live.” The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007. According to the UN, indigenous peoples represent 370 million individuals, forming over 5,000 different groups, present in around 90 countries on five continents and speaking more than 4,000 languages, most of which are becoming extinct.