Jane Jacobs, writing from her adoptive country, uses the problems facing an independence-seeking Quebec and Canada as a whole to examine the universal problem of sovereignty and autonomy that nations great and small have struggled with throughout history. Using Norway’s relatively peaceful divorce from Sweden as an example, Jacobs contends that Canada and Canadians—Quebecois and Anglophones alike—can learn important lessons from similar sovereignty questions of the past.
This book offers a comparative view of nine historic separatist movements, some of which have achieved the break-up of an empire or a state, and others that to date have not. The authors analyze the long term effects of secession: after partition, ethnic strife typically continues for generations; minorities decline in status; and democracy and human rights are derogated.
This volume examines the various aspects of territorial separatism, focusing on how and why separatist movements arise. Featuring essays by leading scholars from different disciplinary perspectives, the book aims to situate the question of separatism within the broader socio-political context of the international system, arguing that a set of historical events as well as local, regional, and global dynamics have converged to provide the catalysts that often trigger separatist conflicts. In addition, the book marks progress towards a new conceptual framework for the study of territorial separatism, by linking the survival of communities in international politics with the effective control of territory and the consequent creation of new polities. Separatist conflicts challenge conventional wisdom concerning conflict resolution within the context of international relations by unpacking a number of questions with regard to conflict transformation. Through the use of case studies, including Cyprus, the Rakhine state in Myanmar, the Shia separatism in Iraq, the Uighurs in China and the case of East Timor, the volume addresses key issues including the role of democracy, international law, intervention, post-conflict peacebuilding and the creation of new political entities. The book will be of much interest to students of Intra-StateConflict, Conflict Resolution, International Law, Security Studies and International Relations.
"This is the kind of book I've been looking for."-Bonnie Zimmerman, author of The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction 1969-1989. The energy spent on all sides of debates about women's separatism demonstrates the vitality of separatism as an important issue. Excited by the prospect that changes in their personal lives could reverberate through the nation, many women have organized rural communes and urban business collectives, putting ideas into practice. Separatism and Women's Community reviews debates in separatist theory, historical narratives by members of separatist collectives, and utopian novels that envision how collectives might be formed. Shugar compares the ideas and proposals of theorists-including Robin Morgan, Shulamith Firestone, Joyce Cheney, Joan Nestle, Ti-Grace Atkinson, and the Radicalesbians-with the experience of women from collectives as diverse as Cell 16, the Combahee River Collective, the Gutter Dyke Collective, the Seattle Collective, the Bloodroot Collective, and the Lavender Woman Collective of Chicago. Despite the attempts to connect action and thought, many women were ill-prepared for the problems they found in collective life. Women who theorized that oppression based on difference was a man-made phenomenon were confronted by other women who challenged their racism, classism, or homophobia. The community had to respond to these confrontations in ways that would strengthen, rather than destroy, their tentative connections with other women. Dana R. Shugar is an assistant professor of English and women's studies at the University of Rhode Island.
This book analyses the economic consequences of the regional government of Catalonia's challenge to democracy and the rule of law in Spain. This process, started in 2010, culminated in a coup d'état in the autumn of 2017. The book has three parts. First: The circumstances behind the challenge: economic structure, social and political aspects. Second: The economic impacts of the resulting huge political instability and social polarisation, and the downturn in GDP, investment, competitiveness, Barcelona's appeal, and flight of companies and banks to Madrid. Third: Independence would mean collapse of trade with the rest of Spain and the EU, expulsion from the eurozone, fall of GDP, plummeting tax revenue, soaring unemployment and, finally, conversion of this hypothetical new Catalonia into a failed, vassal and totalitarian state. This book is destined to be the foremost work of reference on the consequences of the separatist threat to Spain, including Catalonia's current decline.
Black Separatism and Social Reality: Rhetoric and Reason deals with the contemporary debate over black separatism in America. It brings together for the first time many of the perspectives, ideas, orientations, and ideologies that all directly or indirectly address the question of black separatism — pro and con — from the vantage point of their own realities. It raises fundamental issues that have recurred throughout the last century and continue unabated today, such as whether black Americans should seek their political destiny apart from white Americans, or whether economic growth within the black community can eventually lead to true ""black power."" This book is comprised of 31 chapters and begins with a historical overview and social reality of black separatism in America, how and why black separatist movements emerge and why separatism appeals to some individuals and not to others. The next section explores the similarities of white racist assumptions and black separatism as well as the arguments for and against separatism. The prospects of black separatism are analyzed, along with Pan-Africanism and black studies. A comprehensive review of the history of separatist thought and a bibliography concerning the relation of Afro-Americans with Africa are presented. The possibility of a violent confrontation between whites and blacks is also considered. Finally, the book ponders the question of whether there is a need for a distinct, ""black"" social science. This monograph will appeal to sociologists, social scientists, political scientists, politicians, blacks, and scholars of black studies.
This book offers a bold and controversial new thesis regarding the nature of prejudice. The authors' central claim is that prejudice is not simply learned, rather it is predisposed in all human beings and is thus the foundation for ethical valuation. They aim to destroy the illusion that prejudice is merely the result of learned beliefs, socially conditioned attitudes, or pathological states of development. Contrary to traditional accounts, prejudice itself is not a negative attribute of human nature, rather it is the necessary precondition for the self and civilization to emerge. Defined as the preferential self-expression of valuation, prejudice gives rise to greater existential complexities and novelties that elevate selfhood and society to higher states of ethical realization. Rather than offer another contribution that highlights the destructive nature of prejudice, Mills and Polanowski address the ontological, psychological, and dialectical origins of prejudice as it manifests itself in the process of selfhood and culture. They provide an original conceptualization of the phenomenology of prejudice and its dialectical instantiation in the ontology of the individual, worldhood, and the very structures of subjectivity. As a unique synthesis of psychoanalysis, Hegelian idealism, Heideggerian existential ontology, and Whiteheadian process philosophy, prejudice is the indispensable ground for humanity to actualize its highest potentiality-for-Being. The striking result is (1) a revolutionary theory of human nature, (2) a new ethical system, and (3) the elevation of dialectical ethics to the domain of metaphysics.
This book proposes and tests a ‘theory of separatism’ to determine if there are key commonalities as to why separatist movements rise and what fuels them. In the post-Cold War period separatism has been on the rise. Today, there are more than 100 active separatist movements, with around 70 of them engaging in violence. This book focuses on examples from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to highlight the commonalities found across the case studies. It examines the idea of separatism, to better understand what drives movements to break away from preexisting states; demonstrates the factors which produce both violent separatism and the rise of armed non-state actors; and shows the options for the resolution of such conflict, based on considering claims for separatism from the perspectives of separatist movements. This book will be applicable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of International Relations and International Politics as well as Conflict/Peace Studies, Anthropology and Post-Colonial Studies.
This book adopts a long-term perspective to consider political self-determination, peacekeeping and the creation of political meaning. It analyzes problems in the nation-state system and assesses current issues regarding separatism and secession movements. Drawing on extensive research in the fields of political theory, democracy studies and social welfare, the book develops a framework of new rules on a fundamental level that can help nations overcome conflicts concerning borders and nationalities.
Armed separatist insurgencies have created a real dilemma for many national governments of how much freedom to grant aggrieved minorities without releasing territorial sovereignty over the nation-state. This book examines different approaches that have been taken by seven states in South and Southeast Asia to try and resolve this dilemma through various offers of autonomy. Providing new insights into the conditions under which autonomy arrangements exacerbate or alleviate the problem of armed separatism, this comprehensive book includes in-depth analysis of the circumstances that lead men and women to take up arms in an effort to remove themselves from the state's borders by creating their own independent polity.
