ABSTRACT

First, imagine the total removal of all existing international political boundaries and then, thinking of all distinctive large population groups as regionalisms, impose new political boundaries around those populations. Two things would stand out: the location of the new boundaries would be quite different from currently existing ones and there would be hundreds of new political units. Perhaps it is only wishful thinking to consider such a total reorganisation of political space, although to some writers, who see bigness as the cause of all forms of human misery, hundreds of new ‘states’ might represent the salvation of the world (see Kohr 1957; Schumacher 1974). But would a world of only small (many of them mini) states necessarily be good? Diversity is one of the key stimulants to successful societies, not uniformity. The dilemma to be faced in any such redrafting of international boundaries would be, what scale of population is ‘proper’ to enjoy a territory and government of its own? There is no easy answer to this question.