ABSTRACT
Michael Saward once asked whether the state is “capable of systematically prioritizing the achievement of sustainability” (1998: 345). The modern state and its historical development cannot be dissociated from the concept of sovereignty (Walker 1993; Bartelson 1995); sovereignty is both the organizing principle of the state as a territorially bounded unity, and the ultimate point of reference for the state’s claim to legitimate authority. It conditions modern state-based politics. When asking about the state’s capability for achieving sustainability, then, one is also asking whether sovereignty is compatible with sustainability. In examining the relationship between the state and sustainability, a key question is whether sovereignty is capable of systematically prioritizing the achievement of sustainability.
