Unrecognized States and Secession in the 21st Century Martin Riegl • Bohumil Doboš Editors Unrecognized States and Secession in the 21st Century 123 Editors Martin Riegl Bohumil Doboš Institute of Political Studies Institute of Political Studies Charles University Charles University Prague Prague Czech Republic Czech Republic ISBN 978-3-319-56912-3 ISBN 978-3-319-56913-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56913-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939086 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface The issue of international recognition and secession is one of the key topics within the framework of the contemporary geopolitical research. As such, it was also one of the key topics studied by us and the colleagues at our institute since the beginning of our geopolitical research. In November 2015, we decided that it would be definitely worth the time and effort to dedicate a scholarly monograph to the various facets and aspects of this issue; thus, we decided to bring experts from around the world together to share their research with us and with the wider academic community. We were and still are very happy with the response this call for papers has generated. Based on these contributions of our colleagues and some additional research added later, we are finally able to bring you this volume pre- senting the contemporary topics of research on the unrecognized states and secession in general. We were lucky enough not only to get contribution from the foremost experts in the field such as Nina Caspersen or Mikulas Fabry but also to get contribution from experts dealing with some of the less known but still very interesting topics like the Bougainville issue presented by Vladimír Baar. The selection of the topic is important for one other reason. Since the end of the Cold War and the diminishing likelihood of the global nuclear annihilation, the focus of the international community and, subsequently, the academia turned to other issues. One of the most prominent of these is the tension between the principle of territorial integrity and the right of self-determination in the context of the post-Second World War delegitimization of war as a means of political conduct. This topic has been brought up repeatedly, as evident from cases like the dissolution of Yugoslavia, recognition of East Timor and South Sudan, or more recently in the attempts to utilize the self-determination principle in places such as Eastern Ukraine and Kurdistan. Clearly, the topic is not going away, and the proper understanding of the issue is crucial for better grasp on these important issues. This is one of the main aims not only of this book but also of the whole geopolitical research as exemplified by the Geopolitical Studies Research Centre at the Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, from which the Editors of this volume originate. v vi Preface We would also like use the opportunity to thank all the people that helped make this book happen. First of all, we thank the authors that took the time to share with us their top research, without which this work as we present it to you would not exist. Second, it is necessary to thank the Institute of Political Studies not only for institutional support as the book was financed by the Charles University Research Development Schemes, programme PROGRES Q18—Social sciences: from mul- tidisciplinary to interdisciplinary, but also to Annual of Language & Politics and Politics of Identity journal that allowed us to share part of the papers published by the institution in this book. Third, we thank our colleague Jan Bečka for language consultations that helped us in a big way. Next, we would like to thank all those who support the geopolitical research at our institute, be it people from the Faculty in general, our students, or our colleagues that did not publish in this volume but provide stimulating research that helps the entire department to move forward. Last but not least, we cannot omit the readers of this volume without whom the whole publishing process would be pointless. We hope that this volume will provide you with a stimulating look at the contemporary research regarding the two main issues raised in the title—unrecognized states and secession. Prague, Czech Republic Martin Riegl Bohumil Doboš Contents Introduction: Secession and Recognition in the Twenty-first Century .................................... 1 Eiki Berg, Martin Riegl and Bohumil Doboš Part I Theoretical Perspectives Making Peace with De Facto States.............................. 11 Nina Caspersen Unrecognized States and National Identity ........................ 23 Mikulas Fabry Ontological Security of the Post-Soviet de Facto States .............. 35 Urban Jakša Contemporary Referendum on Independence (RI) and Linguistic Aspects of an Intelligible Referendum Question (RQ) ............... 53 Přemysl Rosůlek (Super)Power Rule: Comparative Analysis of Parent States .......... 85 Martin Riegl and Bohumil Doboš Part II Case Studies Political Institutions in the Post-Soviet De Facto States in Comparison: Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh ................. 111 Vincenc Kopeček Iran’s Problems with Territorial Non-state Actors: A Case Study of Sistan and Balochistan................................. 137 Robert Czulda Kurdistan Region’s Quest for Independent Statehood: Trapped in Internal and Geopolitical Rivalries ............................ 153 Martin Riegl, Bohumil Doboš, Jakub Landovský and Shmuel Bar vii viii Contents Bougainville: From Conflict to Independence Under the Law? ........ 169 Vladimír Baar The Right to Self-determination or Inviolability of Borders in the Horn of Africa? The African Union Approach ............... 187 Kateřina Rudincová Long Way to Recognition: Challenges Facing the European “Newborn” from the 2015 Perspective ........................... 205 Jan Bečka Conclusion: Future of International Recognition? .................. 223 Martin Riegl and Bohumil Doboš Editors and Contributors About the Editors Martin Riegl was born in 1980. He currently lectures at the Institute of Political Studies of Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He graduated in 2010 at Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (programme Political Science), where he successfully finished doc- toral studies in the field of political geography. Since 2008, he has been lecturing at the Department of Political Science (FSS, UK). His academic research is focused on the institution of the sovereign state, geopolitics of political disintegration, secession, unrecognized states, and state failure. He actively participated at scientific conferences and workshops in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Belgium, Poland, UK, Taiwan etc. Bohumil Doboš is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. His research interest lies in areas of post-Westphalian geopolitics, New Middle Age theory, geopolitical anomalies, geopolitics of violent non-state actors, and astropolitics. He is also a coordinator of the Geopolitical Studies Research Centre at the same institute and employee at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech republic—Defence Policy and Strategy Division. Contributors Shmuel Bar Institute of Policy and Strategy, Herzliya, Israel Vladimír Baar University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia Jan Bečka Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Eiki Berg University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Nina Caspersen University of York, York, UK Robert Czulda University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Bohumil Doboš Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic ix x Editors and Contributors Mikulas Fabry Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA Urban Jakša University of York, York, UK Vincenc Kopeček University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic Jakub Landovský Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Martin Riegl Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Přemysl Rosůlek Department of Political Science and International Relations, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic Kateřina Rudincová Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education, Technical University of Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic.