Philip C. Bobbitt

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History

Excerpt: Five Developments that Threaten the Constitutional Order of National States

The State is changing, and this change in the State will be constitutional in nature, by which I mean we will change our views as to the basic raison d'etre of the State, that legitimating purpose that justifies the State and sets the terms of the State's strategic endeavours.

At present our model of statecraft links the sovereignty of a state to its territorial borders. Within these borders the state is supreme with respect to its law, and beyond its border the state earns the right of recognition and intercourse to the extent that it can defend its borders. Today this model confronts several deep challenges. And because the international order is constructed on the foundation of this model of state sovereignty, events that cast doubt on that sovereignty call the entire system into question.

Five such developments do so: (1) the recognition of human rights as norms that require domestic adherence by all states, regardless of their internal laws; (2) the development of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, which render the defense of State borders ineffectual for the protection of a society; (3) the emerging recognition of global and transnational threats that transcend state borders, such as those that damage the environment, or threaten states through migration, population expansion, and disease or famine; (4) the growth of a world economic regime that ignores borders in the movement of capital investment to a degree that effectively curtails states in the management of their economic affairs; (5) the threat to national cultures posed by the revolution in international communication, linking all cultures to one language that competes with local forms and penetrates borders electronically. As a consequence, a constitutional order will arise that reflects these five developments and indeed exalts them as requirements that only this new order can meet. The emergence of a new basis for the State will also change the constitutional framework of international society, a framework that derives from the domestic constitutional orders of its constituent members.