ABSTRACT
The late twentieth century was clearly a time when conventional notions of sovereign statehood were changing. The phenomenon of globalization along with the emergence of new regional and international regimes in virtually every dimension of traditional sovereign authority are now widely acknowledged. The post-1945 period, paradoxically, has also been one of fragmentation and disintegration. The proliferation of new states, indeed the celebration of separate statehood, has reached the most improbable corners of the world. States may be conceding large areas of exclusive competence, succumbing to new regulatory regimes and collaborating in all manner of jurisdictional authority. But, they also continue to assert their separateness, their exclusivity and their final sovereign authority in an international system predicated on the symbols and the recognition of the centrality of the sovereign state. Indeed, the appeal of sovereignty has ignited the ambitions of scores of societies for whom such a status would have once seemed both absurd and unreachable. But, as new states emerge from the detritus of empires, it has also increased the level of friction between and within states.
