Self-Determination and Collective Responsibility in the Secessionist Struggle

Costas Laoutides is a Lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University.

’The challenges posed to the world’s political boundaries by secessionist movements are both complex and enduring. The political rights and moral aspirations of groups are frequently difficult to reconcile with the prevailing world order, often causing severe hardship and intractable conflict. In this original and insightful study, Costas Laoutides provides a new conceptual guide to understanding self-determination in the modern world. Drawing on the case studies of Kurds and the people of Moldova-Transdniestria, he focuses on the collective moral responsibility of secessionist groups to unlock the unrealised potential of the principle as it was originally conceived. With this approach, Laoutides breaks a theoretical blockage in the subject and redirects scholarship into more hopeful and productive channels. A timely study which is centrally relevant to international politics today, and highly recommended.’ Scott Burchill, Deakin University, Australia ’In this topical book Dr Laoutides explores the collective moral agency involved in secessionist struggles and offers a convincing theoretical model for the collective responsibility of secessionist groups. Laoutides argues that although self-determination was envisaged as the emancipatory means it failed to realize its potential because it was interpreted within a framework of exclusionary politics of identity.’ Alexis Heraclides, Panteion University, Greece

• Introduction; Part I Theory and Practise of Self-Determination and Secession; Chapter 1 The Evolution of Self-Determination in World Politics; Chapter 2 Theorizing Secession in the Post-Cold War Era; Part II Secession as Responsible Emancipation: Processes and Collective Action; Chapter 3 The Process of Secession as Emancipation; Chapter 4 Collective Agency and Collective Responsibility in Secessionist Politics; Part III Collective Responsibility in Real Cases; Chapter 5 The Kurdish Separatist Movement in Turkey and Iraq; Chapter 6 The Moldova-Transdniester Conflict; Conclusion;