Micro-sovereignties have become increasingly important for States seeking to strengthen their territorial control. Micro-sovereignties can have a disproportionate impact in relation to their size and the number of inhabitants that support them. This article offers a definition of the concept of micro-sovereignties and provides criteria for identifying and qualitatively assessing them. It is shown that, in addition to being a challenge to the sovereignty of nations, they also represent an opportunity, especially in democratic regimes, to strengthen sovereignty through networks of pow-er that cooperate with micro-sovereignties, considering their strengths in terms of moral authority and links with the population.
Read more
The article addresses the tense border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that has been submitted to the International Court of Justice for adjudication. Aside from the high stakes to be awarded to the recipient of an ICJ decision, the article also examines the process the two countries have accepted to resolve their dispute. It is an example of how LA/C nations defer to international conflict resolution institutions to resolve differences rather than resorting to armed force.
Read more
Brazil lives within a regional security context, a “securosphere” that is immensely hard to avoid. Strenuous disagreements among defense and security agencies over approaches to precise methods of identification, measurement, and reactions of living and emerging threats on this securosphere proved their shared ability to be mistaken. This article proposes a national security border system of systems with enough power of discrimination and capacity for integration to address danger or take advantage of changing circumstances across Brazil's borders, tied to appropriate outcomes of the security agents. I discriminate sensible topological differences to lay out interconnection patterns of the various elements defining three specific border environments, using them to plan a more successful action. I also discriminate between subtle similarities among practical operational concepts of the armed forces and the police forces to provide better-analyzed premises, using them to build wholeness of understanding. From a better understanding of the whole, we can infer system requirements for the parts, providing capacity to conduct a disciplined exercise of planning with politically and financially affordable costs.
Read more
