Diplomatic Folklore, the Akwizgran Discrepancy, and Swiss Cheese Sovereignties

Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG, has up two posts on sovereignty and geography. Quoting from Neal Ascherson, one post begins:

There "may or may not have been," he writes, "something called the ‘Akwizgran Discrepancy’." It’s now just "a forgotten thread of diplomatic folklore."

(Ascherson, by the way, is the author of Black Sea, an excellent history of the region.)

The discrepancy may have been a small plot of land bordered by Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands that was unclaimed by any state.  No one argued that it was its own country; it was just a little bit of land outside of the system of sovereign states. Referring to an article by Ascherson, Manuagh explains:

Ascherson’s paper is about the fluid nature of "international space." He focuses particularly on the changing natures of both terrain and sovereignty – and how the definition of one always affects the definition of the other.

 

Ascherson’s geography is, for the most part, European; he discusses nation-states from the early 20th century through to the end of the Cold War. During that time, we read, there were a number of "less durable spaces" – for instance, the "parallel but unlicensed institutions" of Solidarity-era Poland. He points out that, "in the early 20th century, there were a number of spaces which were not absolutely unpopulated but whose allocation to empires or nation-states was undecided."  

From an imperial standpoint, these unofficially recognized lands and institutions – mostly rural and almost always located near borders – represented "a dangerous breach in space." They were "intercellular spaces," we’re told, and they functioned more like "gaps, crevices, interstices, [and] oversights" within much larger systems of sovereign power . A great post, check it out.

Manaugh follows this up with the story of  Baarle-Hertog, a town that is like jurisdictional swiss cheese: most of the town is in Belgium, but little disconnected pockets (the holes in the swiss cheese) are part of the Netherlands. (Does this make it Belgian cheese? Dutch cheese?)  This is a “picture is worth a thousand words" moment:

What these posts together show is that sovereignty in practice is so much more nuanced than in theory.  In seeing the Baarle-Hertog map one of the first things I thought of was the Vance-Owen map of Bosnia. And then various proposals concerning sovereignty in the Occupied Territories of Palestine.  Addressing the complex jurisdictional and policy-coordination issues that may arise from these complex arrangements may become increasingly important work for international lawyers who are involved in trying to find solutions in the contested territories of the world. 

Moreover, as political geographers explain, people who live in borderlands—that is the territory on both sides of a political border—often have more of a common identity amongst themselves than with the rest of the population of their own respective states.  The people in borderlands often have economic, environmental, and ethnic affinities that the political boundaries do not reflect.  Consequently, besides being important for conflict resolution, a greater understanding of the realities of sovereignty and of affinity may also lead to more opportunities for cooperation.

Today’s international lawyers may have much to gain in examining “forgotten diplomatic folklore” and the footnotes of political geography.

I’ll follow this up with another post on microstates and (literally) constructing sovereignty….

Hat tip: The Complex Terrain Laboratory