Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Self-determination has recently assumed a salience within the international arena: the dissolution of the Soviet Union; the bloody conflict in former Yugoslavia; the attempted secession of Quebec from Canada; the apparent settlement between Eritrea and Ethiopia; the partition of Czechoslovakia; and the continued warfare in Sri Lanka have all implicitly or explicitly raised questions of self-determination.' That is, in each of these cases, communities have demanded a change in their international identities and greater control over their everyday social, economic, and political lives.

Since the end of World War I, the international community has actively emphasized principles of self-determination. "Perhaps no contemporary norm of international law has been so vigorously promoted or widely accepted as the right of all peoples to self-determination." 2 Despite historical, legal, and political support for self-determination movements, however, some observers have recently argued that present global conditions dictate a restriction on such movements. Citing the importance of regional alliances, they worry that current and future movements for self-determination portend lengthy and violent conflicts which threaten to embroil all nations, weaken international cooperation, and undermine recent democratic developments.3 Such commentators assert that as the era of decolonization comes to a close and an apparently new era of democracy surfaces, the doctrine of self-determination should either be relegated to historical "dustbins" or severely limited in scope.

This paper argues that such views derive from an unjustifiably limited conception of self-determination and a short-sighted perspective on geo-political realities. Rather than abandoning self-determination principles, the international community must readjust its conception of selfdetermination to address the changing needs of a post-Cold War world. Part II briefly discusses the history and development of self-determination. Part HI then describes its "external" and "internal" aspects, and addresses the future of the right to self-determination. It argues that the international community can simultaneously promote human rights and world stability only if it cautiously supports movements for external selfdetermination and actively encourages movements for internal self-determination.

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