But lets talk serious business. Sovereignty. Its a fun little idea. Essentially, a country that is considered sovereign is one that has control over domestic, foreign, fiscal, and monetary policy. In other words, they dictate how to manage their own domestic and international affairs. Since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, sovereignty has been considered to be an undeniable state right.
Even looking at the UN Charter, we see this concept of sovereignty. No state is permitted by the UN Charter to intervene in the domestic affairs of a state. But what does this have to do with the Arab Spring states? Am I just some crazy person rambling about political terms? Yes. But this is relevant I swear!
Questions have already arisen in the UN about sovereignty. In the case of the Arab Spring, producing a viable peace settlement may require outside intervention. The question then becomes what degree of external intervention is ideal/acceptable to the different actors involved? Some countries openly opposed the intervention in Libya while others feel that the resolution did not go far enough. Some feel that the issue should either be handled by the countries in question or some regional arrangement while others would rather see broad UN involvement. Check out this article and read the section on conditional sovereignty. Then read up on Responsibility to Protect... its highly relevant.
In the meantime, keep it real home skillets! Oh! Almost forgot! News update! The UN recently updated its Libya mandate. Super cool stuff and very important for your future peace deals! I leave you with a skill testing question: what is green and has wheels?
Grass... I lied about the wheels...
Your wicked awesomesauce chair, Josh
"Libyans do not know Denmark, they do not hate Denmark. They know Italy and they hate Italy." -- Muammar Gaddafi
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