Abstract
Conflict resolution scholarship and practice is suffused with the influential modern and Western idea of sovereignty. The notion of an exclusive, accomplished, and self-sufficient entity—a self, or a territory circumscribing a group of people—and the accompanying right to exercise authority over this entity has been absorbed from mainstream social science scholarship and political thinking. Unfortunately, the idea of sovereignty has been subject to limited critical reflection or analysis in conflict resolution. Although sovereignty has come under some criticism,1 sovereign entities, either autonomous and discrete individuals or states, continue to be assumed as the primary agents for knowing the social and political world of conflict, and the key institutions for responding to conflict and (re-)ordering relations and geographical regions disrupted by conflict events.
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Notes
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© 2008 Morgan Brigg
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Brigg, M. (2008). Sovereign Selves. In: The New Politics of Conflict Resolution. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583375_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583375_4
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