Soft Borders

Studies in democratic theory and international relations increasingly take globalization and fragmentation as a starting point for discussion, assuming the decreased relevance of the nation-state as a given. However, while the notion of sovereignty is increasingly contested within academic circles, most recent military conflicts have been over issues of sovereignty in some form. Traditional understanding of the term has invested it with a potential for violence on the one hand. and impotence on the other. Focusing on the case of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, this book explores the issues surrounding 'sovereignty' and calls for a radical rethinking of the notion and the institutions and practices that it grounds.