Deconstructing States’Autonomy in Argumentation for External Intervention

Abstract

Autonomy, the right of self-government (à la sovereignty), had been inalienable to states since modernism. It is so-crafted and consolidated as strategy for stymieing interstate internecine frictions triggered often by the unbridled/aggressive interlopings characterising the medieval princes and principalities, which consequently plagued and unsettled inter-principality relations. Thus, later with modernism, granting a u t o n o m o u s s t a t e h o o d t o s e l f - determinist/nationalist groups gained international acceptance/momentum after Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the imperial Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife. Ever since, especially after 1945 modern internationalism had significantly tamed interstate aggression through collectivised relations and constructive interconnectedness, fostering greater systemic control, peace, security and cooperation, which, in turn, enabled humanity to achieve mammoth growth and multifaceted development. Consequent upon the problem of growth by the end of that century, the world again began to experience new menaces, w h i c h e n d a n g e r e d h u m a n i t y i n unprecedented proportions/dimensions. Many states failed or had violently been contested and became international liabilities, and quite a number of them had harboured migratory rogues that commit crimes against humanity. Also, multifaceted/syndicated terrorism and criminality had preyed on the sacrosanctness of states' autonomy and systemic interconnectedness to perpetrate humanitarian horrors. Consequently, two new conceptual strategies crept into the lexicon of internationality – state-building and intervention, toward rejigging systemic security by redeeming distressed states from becoming 'international public bads.' They, though, helped to recoup and manage systemic stability, nevertheless in operationalism, had scathing implications for states' autonomy. This work dissected, justified and essentialised intervention and state-building while arguing that states' autonomy needs deconstruction to sustain internationalism and humanity.