| Revolutions in sovereignty change the basic terms of authority in international relations, terms which I call "norms of sovereignty." These revolutions, I argue, result not merely from prior changes in the nature of economies, domestic institutions, technologies, or the international balance of power, as a structural or Realist account would suggest, but also, crucially, from transformations in ideas about legitimate political authority, which become forms of social power and shape the interests of states.; I define sovereignty as supreme authority within a territory, and norms of sovereignty as internationally agreed upon rules determining which authorities are sovereign in which affairs. Norms of sovereignty are both legitimate and practiced. They define three "faces of sovereignty": (1) Who are the legitimate polities?; (2) What are the criteria for becoming such a polity?; and (3) What are the essential prerogatives of these polities? A revolution in sovereignty changes at least one of these faces.; I then develop a theory of ideas, contrast it with skeptical structural theories, and posit a method for testing it. In my theory of ideas, ideas exert influence through two dynamics. First, they shape identities. Second, they become socially empowered, shaping the ends of polities. Structural skepticism, including Realism, would deny one or both of these influences.; In my first case study, I argue that at Westphalia in 1648, the norm of sovereign statehood finally triumphed over the older medieval authority, and that the Protestant Reformation was crucial to bringing about Westphalia. In the second case study, I explain the norm of colonial independence, codified in a 1960 United Nations declaration, and practiced through Britain's and France's sweeping release of their colonies. I argue that only the spread and empowerment of anti-colonial ideas can explain the release of colonies, and in a complementary argument I show that how the ideas interacted with a metropole's justificatory ideal of empire explains whether colonial independence occurred peacefully or violently.; In the conclusion, I briefly consider how ideas might have influenced other revolutions in sovereignty. I end with some general conclusions about the role of ideas in bringing revolutions in sovereignty. |
