The end of colonialism was a factor which led to the development of Sovereign Nations. During the colonial times, there were rulers and dictators who governed several nations. These nations, during this period, were not considered sovereign as all the impacting decisions were made by other rulers in other locations. The continued rise in countries seeking independence was the onset of sovereignty. It is where nations across the world are given the authority to govern themselves without undue pressure or coercion from other external forces. The nations have a choice in selecting the kind of government that can be implemented to govern the state, a section from a democratic, aristocratic, monarchical, or dictatorial. In this state, a nation is considered sovereign in that it is able to develop laws and regulations that ensure the success of the people within the present state.
The development of technology and continued advancements in communication technology has fostered the development of governments and institutions networks. Businesses have expounded into other nations and have a large impact on the success of these nations. Decisions made by both developed and developing nations have a large impact on the success of the government and businesses positioned both locally and internationally. There are continued investments and funding opportunities that are provided in both developing and developed countries from other nations. Technology has made the whole world a global village. Nations depend on each other to develop and succeed in the global economy. With this network, the state and governing of a nation are of concern to other nations that have a vested interest in its success. Due to this, there are circumstances where a decision made by a given nation can heavily influence the circumstances within another nation, either negatively or positively. In such scenarios, a paradox of sovereignty develops, where several factors are present and can influence the sovereignty of a nation (Wagner-Pacifici, 2005).
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Sovereign Surrenders are paradoxical as well. Agamben described sovereign surrenders as situations where the vanquished bodies must p[resent their credentials in order to divest themselves from the credentials (Wagner-Pacifici, 2005). A present example of such a surrender can be seen with Prussia and how it became a Kingdom. It was an area that had been occupied by West Slavic tribes who are ancestors of the modern Poles. They were closely related to the Lithuanians in the East and the Baltic tribes in the West. The area was invaded and settled by German tribes who came to be known as Prussians after the seventh century.
In the thirteenth century, the Prussians were forcefully converted into Christianism by the Teutonic Knights. They were a military religious order and started enlarging their territories by conquering its neighbours through victorious wars in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century, the order started losing wars to its neighbours and contracted in size. Poland and Lithuania heavily influenced the Prussians to overthrow the Teutonic Knights which led to the division of the Prussians (History World, n.d.). In the West was Royal Prussia that was incorporated by Poland, and Ducal Prussia in the East which was a fief of the commonwealth King. It came to be recognized as a royal Duchy which belonged to the Hohenzollern Family and was inhabited largely by the Germans. By the 17 th century, a trend towards self-contained independent states led to the development of political pressure to bridge the gap between Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia. Ducal Prussia acquired a new status that was closely related to Brandenburg. It is from this title that Frederick William of Brandenburg was able to win over Ducal Prussia to be an independent duchy belonging to Brandenburg. He was able to get the Poland administration to sovereignly surrender the hold it had on Prussia through well-developed warfare and diplomacy tactics. From this separation, the development of the Kingdom of Prussia occurred. The surrender of the Poland over Ducal Prussia is termed as a sovereign surrender where external influences were made to drive Poland to willfully give up one of their territories to Brandenburg (History World, n.d.).
Once an understanding of Sovereign Paradox is made, then other governing situations which influence the decisions of nations to the benefit of other nations can be understood as well. However, the presence of factors which have an influence over the sovereignty of a nation gives rise to the development of paradoxes. In the development of these paradoxes, the occurrence of sovereign surrenders, and other situations are explained.
References
History World. (n.d.). History of Prussia. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa54
Wagner-Pacifici, R. (2005). The Art of Surrender: Decomposing Sovereignty at Conflict’s End . University of Chicago Press.
