In the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was...Show moreIn the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was adopted in 2000, grants the organisation the right to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. This reflects a conceptualisation of sovereignty as responsibility. To understand this shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of nine official declarations of the Organization of African Unity between 1990 and 1999 through the lens of constructivist theory. It finds that collective identity, in the guise of Pan-Africanism, serves an important role in enabling the shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty through narrative and interaction. This suggests that collective identity, explicitly on the regional level, is an important factor to be considered in the institutionalisation of humanitarian intervention and has implications for the Responsibility to Protect.Show less
The European Union is seen as an institution in which member states pool or transfer their sovereignty. This research will analyze the relationship between sovereignty and the European Union in an...Show moreThe European Union is seen as an institution in which member states pool or transfer their sovereignty. This research will analyze the relationship between sovereignty and the European Union in an attempt to explore what happens to sovereignty and if concerns of losing sovereignty to the European Union are legit.Show less
Advanced master thesis | Political Science (Advanced Master)
open access
The so-called ‘Pacific Century’ has inspired a new wave of literature on the impact of the rise of China on existent trends of Geopolitics, Development and Global Governance. In no place has this...Show moreThe so-called ‘Pacific Century’ has inspired a new wave of literature on the impact of the rise of China on existent trends of Geopolitics, Development and Global Governance. In no place has this been more apparent than in sub-Saharan Africa, a region previously dominated by Western influence and norms. This thesis examines the implications of the pursuit of interests by the EU and China on Sovereignty since the turn of the century, focusing on the case of Nigeria. I argue that whereas the EU considers sovereignty to be ‘subjective’ to internal legitimacy, China adopts a ‘defensive’ stance on the norm. These positions are the result of each actor’s respective interests in resource accumulation, economic growth and diplomatic support. Using process tracing, I show how the pursuit of interests by the EU and China result in both direct and indirect impacts on Sovereignty in Nigeria. Whereas most scholars of International Relations focus on direct breeches of sovereignty in the case of international intervention in state affairs, I have developed the concept of indirect breeches of Sovereignty to incorporate cases in which internal state affairs are influenced, for example through the support of a particular regime type that does not necessarily hold internal legitimacy. This concept has important implications for the potential for collective bargaining between states and the ability to determine the amount of influence of external states in cases of Political-Economic diversity.Show less