Suchergebnisse

International conflicts since World War II have shown a decline in the forms and modalities of beginnings and endings which are characteristic of Western war since the seventeenth century. As the custom of declaring war has become apparently obsolete, so the termination of conflicts involves, at best, accord on provisional settlement, in which authoritative action and agreement on a political settlement are set aside. A stress on provisionality rules out "concord" as a basis for peace. As political strategy, peacekeeping works within a narrow time frame. The article explores strategic perspectives on provisional settlements.

The Principles of Constitutionalism examines the principles which speak to the construction and interaction of state institutions. This article responds to some criticisms of that book, in particular, those which question the universalizability of the principles, the relationship between state institutions and the people of the state, the place of democracy within constitutionalism, and the role of finality in state decision-making. It is argued that it is the link between the people and institutions, mediated by democracy, that both explains and justifies the state's claim to act as the final arbiter of the obligations of its people.