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A post-Westphalian world and the quest for self-determination.

Article Excerpt
Many of the key issues of our turbulent age are presented in this issue of IJWP. It contains hints of the outline of how a post-Westphalian, post-bipolar world is shaping up. We have not come close to creating a world of peace, but we are learning a few things that I hope we can collectively remember to come closer to the end of a history of abuse of power.

The end of a Westphalian World

In the September issue, Morton A. Kaplan argued that "the EEC, Russia, and the United States are not insulated from each other or from the non-Westphalian aspects of the world in which we live. We have a common interest in preserving our civilization, our mutual economic relations, and an environment that we share." And, Evelin Linder argued that Realpolitik in our globalized world no longer means what it did in the bi-polar world or in the Westphalian world.

Great powers, empires, and ideological blocs were attempts by strong leaders or national elite groups to control the world through some type of plan that would give them peace on their own terms. However, such plans have always left out others; both the other states and empires they cannot control, and many of the people they rule, who also would like to pursue life freely on their own terms.

Thus, at the end of World War II when the great powers of the time created the United Nations to prevent war between states, they did not create the conditions of "peace" from the standpoint of those people who were unable to influence policy and often suffered marginalization or oppression at the hands of those who could.

The result of changes in the world that led to the breakdown of the power arrangements of the post-World War II period is a period of international turbulence and a quest for self-determination. However, the quest for self-determination has come in two very different and competing forms of ideals of governance which papers in this issue discuss; the quest for national self-determination, and the quest for democracy.

The Quest for National Self-determination

The first article by Muzaffer Ercan Yilmaz is about "Intra-State Conflicts In The Post-Cold War Era" (p. 11). It discusses the reasons for increased intrastate conflicts in the present era, the problems caused by ethnic rivalry and competition for state resources, possible ways to help prevent such conflicts in the future, and suggestions at resolution of conflicts where they exist.

The charter of the United Nations talks about "national sovereignty" and the "self-determination of peoples" (plural). In traditional societies,...

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