PSIA Seminar: Remedial Sovereignty and the Karabakh Conflict

The need for a broader approach to the concept of sovereignty in the early 90s was conditioned by the transition from quite predictable bipolarity of the cold war years to the as yet nebulous notion of unipolarity. Secessionist movements, followed by the parade of newly emerged sovereignties, electrified the FSU and Eastern Europe. This was the time to rethink sovereignty. The golden middle between yielding sovereignty to the former republics of the Soviet Union, and then urging them to partly compromise it back was found. One could call it “remedial sovereignty” that helped to avoid major collisions and bloodshed. This important fact is often overlooked and underestimated by contemporary political science, while it seems to be the most significant contribution to the future of Eurasian security.

Speaker:

Ambassador Rouben Shougarian
Lecturer, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Tufts University