ABSTRACT
The Schleswig solution for minority reconciliation and accommodation after the division of the region—and its eventual political, economic, and social integration into two different nation states—is praised as a European model of conflict resolution, re-bordering, and finally de-bordering by many of its stakeholders. 1 This praise focuses on the ultimately non-violent political solution to the national conflict by popular approval in an internationally supervised, peaceful plebiscite, and with the resulting border being drawn in line with practical considerations 2 as well as the principle of the right to self-determination. This chapter will reflect on the use of self-determination in the form of plebiscites to define national borderlines. Following a short historical overview of the history of boundary-making, I will discuss the use of self-determination to define borders. A presentation of the Schleswig case will illustrate the practical implementation of self-determination to confirm a previously set agenda. I will conclude with some considerations around the need for stable, unchallenged borders for preserving peace in the current world system of sovereign states, and the challenge of finding democratically acceptable procedures to align these borders with socioeconomic and ethnographic situations on the ground.
