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Sovereignty
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What is Sovereignty?

Sovereignty refers to the supreme authority a state holds over its territory and people, free from external interference. It sits at the center of political science, international relations, and law courses because it shapes how governments justify their power and how nations interact with one another. The concept raises genuinely difficult questions: when does a state's authority over its own affairs become a barrier to justice or global cooperation, and who gets to decide? These tensions make sovereignty one of the most contested and enduring subjects in government studies.

The papers archived here approach sovereignty from several distinct angles. Some take a normative stance, weighing whether state sovereignty produces more harm than good in the international system. Others examine specific conflicts and cases — including the Crimea dispute, the Panamanian Canal, and the DRC versus Belgium — to test how sovereignty functions under real political pressure. Several papers address how globalization and emerging technologies like Google Earth challenge traditional nation-state boundaries, while others extend the concept into cyberlaw and digital governance. A smaller set explores sovereignty in theological or philosophical registers, including individual versus collective dimensions of authority.

A strong essay on sovereignty needs a focused thesis that commits to a specific dimension — legal, political, technological, or ethical — rather than treating the concept in the abstract. Evidence drawn from international case law, treaty frameworks, or documented geopolitical conflicts carries more weight than broad generalizations about power. The most common pitfall is conflating sovereignty with legitimacy; a government can hold sovereign authority while still facing serious challenges to its moral or legal standing, and keeping those distinctions clear strengthens any argument considerably.

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Paper Doctorate

Political reforms needed to restore American democracy and civic virtue

Restoring democracy and civic virtue in the United States will require major reforms that reduce the power of corporations, elites and special interests in the whole political process. Right now, there is a radical disconnect between the political and economic elites and the needs and interests of the ordinary voters. Most people today realize that the country is in its worse crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but government and the political system seem dysfunctional and incapable of dealing with it. Removing the power and control of big money from the political process forever would be the most important step in revitalizing American democracy and making the system more representative and accountable. So would eliminating the Electoral College and electing the president and vice president by a majority of the popular vote. Despite the protests of small states, only this type of reform might actually pressure presidential candidates to campaign more widely for votes instead of concentrating on a few large states, or visiting big cities where the wealthiest donors reside. In addition, the Senate seems particularly dysfunctional and more responsive to the needs of elites and corporate interests than the people. Its use of the filibuster was always an absurdity, especially when the South frequently united in a bloc to prevent blacks from obtaining civil and political rights, and the system today simply maintains a kind of status quo that concentrates all wealth and power at the upper levels of society.

Essay Doctorate

The Reagan doctrine and Cold War anti-communist foreign policy

The US presidential doctrines refer to the stances, goals, policies, and attitudes that are acted by the country's foreign affairs. Moreover, the President of the US outlines them. They are often referred to as "doctrines" since they elicit the country's sovereignty and stance in various policies, internal and external. This study shows that the Reagan Doctrine has had significant effect is shaping the US foreign policies during the cold war period

Essay Doctorate

Why states develop nuclear weapons: security, fear, and international prestige

Knowing why states build nuclear weapons is important for us in order to determine the future of international security and to direct foreign policy efforts in such a way so as to limit the spread of such dangerous armaments. Nuclear weapons are explosives which derive their ability to destroy from chemical reactions, either fission or fusion or a combination of both reactions. These reactions release an enormous quantity of energy, having the capability to destroy even vast cities even if the mass containing the explosive is very little. Such is the power of nuclear weapons.

Essay Doctorate

War as an instrument of foreign policy in modern history

This paper analyzes five different wars, namely, the Napoleonic Wars, The Crimean War, the Boer War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War and the reasons behind it. It also extensively discusses the reasons for the decline of war today and the role of technology in reducing the chance of wars in the future.

Economic growth and India's shifting foreign policy

India is currently the third largest economy of the globe, surpassed only by the United States and China (and the European Union, yet this is not an individual country). India has traditionally been a rather enclosed economy, with its economic operations focused mostly at the domestic level and limited interactions within the international market place.

Thesis Doctorate

The effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security in intelligence sharing on terrorism

National security has been a major concern for United States in past few decades. However, since 2001, this concern has turn into a serious threat for national security. The given research is performed with the intent of evaluating the effectiveness of Department of Homeland Security in terms of intelligence sharing on terrorism. For this purpose, the study is performed following a predictive form of research. This research methodology is best suited for the researches where the source of data is secondary. For the purpose of this research, the articles from peer reviewed journals and intelligence reports on Department of Homeland Security will be used.

Research Paper Doctorate

European enlargement and the development of EU security policy

The Cold War period represented an important time in the history of the European continent and in the development of the concept of security and the way in which it was dealt with at the level of the national security…

Research Paper Doctorate

China's decline in the 19th century through the opium trade

China has recently gone trough a significant political and economic change, as it has finally taken back all its territories from European control, the last vestiges of colonial interests.

Research Paper Doctorate

Religion and politics in the Thirty Years War

¶ … War was fought mainly over religion. Lutherans and Catholics already had tension between them as the 1600s approached. Additionally, Calvinism was on the rise in Europe. Since individual leaders were sanctioning…

Research Paper Doctorate

McCullough v. Maryland and the implied powers doctrine

Many consider McCullough v. Maryland to be one of the most important Supreme Court decisions, ever. The controversy in the case was Maryland's attempt to tax notes of banks chartered outside of Maryland.

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