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Adding To The Westphalian Map: Categorizing Mechanisms Of National Self-Determination, Glen M.E. Duerr

History and Government Faculty Presentations

This paper seeks to add greater definitional rigor to categorizing the mechanisms through which separatist regions become independent. In the literature, some sporadic delineation is used; however, it is not uniform nor are the definitions widely agreed upon. It is, therefore, important to categorize different ways in which new states effectively add to the Westphalian map. Six distinct mechanisms of independence emerged in this study which were then divided into four groups. Each group helps to explain how a state breakups up and under what conditions. Decolonization, irredentism, dissolution and secession are the four major groupings of national independence found …