Course

Peoples, States and Sovereignty - ARTS3849

Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

School: School of Social Sciences

Course Outline: School of Social Sciences

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: 24 units of credit in the Politics, International Relations or Globalisation Studies streams

Equivalent: INST3010, POLS3052

CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Subject Area: Politics
This course can also be studied in the following specialisations: Globalisation Studies, International Relations

The first part of the course establishes a theoretical framework for understanding sovereignty, examining both absolutist and radical democratic theories of the state. The course then examines the use of unconventional violence within the state: terrorism and civil war. The concepts of sovereignty and self-determination in relation to the past and present treatment of indigenous peoples is examined next. This is followed by a discussion of the status of sovereignty in the European Union. The second part studies wars of anticipation, discussing why assertions of a right of anticipation challenge the principle of sovereign equality. The course then looks at the matter of post-bellum justice: the responsibility of interveners to reconstruct post-intervention states. The next topic concerns the socially constructed nature of statehood and sovereignty. The evolution of international legal criteria for statehood is then addressed. The course concludes by examining contemporary Chinese interpretations of sovereignty both domestically and internationally.

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