The doctrine of sovereignty developed as
part of the transformation of the medieval system in Europe into the modern state system.17 the treaty
of Westphalia of 1648 was a culmination of this process, and it saw
the emergence of modern nation-states with
sovereign powers exercised by
recognized governments of such
sates. This treaty which ended the thirty years war (1618-1648)
in Germany, saw to it that the two medieval institutions that
threatened and rivaled the power of
nation-states: universal church and
dynastic empires, suffered several degrees of diminution of their
powers.
Both were
henceforth to be denied any
interference in the ecclesiastical and temporal affairs of the developing nation state.18. sovereignty thus signified thus signified the rise of the
monarch to absolute prominence over
rival feudal claimants such as
the aristocracy, the papacy and the
roman empire19. It
began, and has continued to serve
internationally, as the basis for exchanges of recognition of statehood,
and of legal equality of states
in the international system, as well as diplomacy and international law.
It has
however been argued that “sovereignty is the other side of the coin of international anarchy”, since the claim of sovereignty by states makes the structure of international system to be anarchic, in that
every state retains the power and authority to act authoritatively within its
domestic environment without any in-habitation either from within or without. But as we noted
earlier, the international society
operates on mutually agreed rules, precepts or
conventions. So as we shall have occasion to mention later, rather than
a harbinger of chaos in the
international system the mutual
recognition of claims to sovereignty is actually the basis of the emergence of the international
society as we have come to know it
today.