Context: The era of climate change will change international relations beyond recognition.
Evolution of the idea of sovereignty
Peace of Westphalia, 1648: Put forward a realist notion by acknowledging sovereignty and the system accepted that countries pursue their national interests, which tend to clash.
These ideas enshrined in Charter of the United Nations: Absolute sovereignty notion that foreign countries have no right “to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”
Principle of sovereignty was never absolute or uncontroversial: Humanitarian counterargument to sovereignty – Countries have not just the right but the duty to intervene in other states if, say, those are committing atrocities such as genocide.
New threats to sovereignty
Ideas put forth by thinkers such as Stewart Patrick: In a world where all countries collectively face planetary emergency of global warming, sovereignty is simply no longer a tenable concept.
Collective interest over national interest: A carbon dioxide molecule emitted in China, the US or India will waft who-knows-where and accelerate climate change everywhere. It will flood cities in Germany, burn forests in Australia, starve people in Africa and submerge islands in the Pacific.
All the world’s people, therefore, have a legitimate interest in the greenhouse gases emitted in any given jurisdiction.
Ecocide: In 2019, Brazil allowing fires to burn wide swathes of the Amazon rainforest. Is a rainforest located in Brazil the business of Brazil or of the world?
Rising new types of conflicts: Including wars over access to freshwater, the disappearance of arable land or mass migrations.
Some powers or alliances will in the future contemplate military interventions in other states to end what they will define as ecocide.
Others may even go to war if they believe rival countries are taking unilateral measures against climate change that threaten their own interests.
America spraingy huge quantities of aerosols into the stratosphere may cool earth but trigger changes in weather patterns and rob other countries of their livelihood.
Way Forward: Time to think about the demise of sovereignty is now
An ecological equivalent to what the World Trade Organizationis to commerce: A new international body that makes the conundrum explicit and attempts to maintain order.