Across Continents

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The problem with Sovereignty

November 19th, 2010

The problem with Sovereignty is you can do pretty much what you like. Unless you care about your standing in the international community. Or you’ve vast natural resources. Misbehave and we might invade. Cynical view for a cynical world? Perhaps.

North Korea had got me thinking. The hermit state features frequently in the news in China. Or, to give its proper title, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Perhaps they’re possessed of a particularly ironic sense of humour. Maybe not. You do sense political satire not big over there.

But North Korea’s not alone in adopting a blatantly misleading title, to the consternation of much of the civilised world. There’s the Democratic Republic of Congo. And Laos, People’s Democratic Republic. Rated worse in the corruption stakes than Azerbaijan. Which I imagine takes some doing. Perhaps it’s down to the latter’s recent “free elections”. A concept I find particularly hard to grasp in Azeriland.

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