Search

Begin New Search Topic Independence

1. The Frozen Conflict in Western Sahara and the Forgotten Question of Sahrawi

Author:
Marco Marsili
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Review of Human Rights
Institution:
Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
Abstract:
Western Sahara’s “frozen conflict” is one of the major and forgotten issues that, so far, the international community could not settle. This article aims to shed light on the historical events and the political responsibilities that led to a protracted stalemate over the Sahrawi question. The paper retraces the historical roots of the claims over the disputed territory by the Polisario Front, as the representative of the Sahrawi people, over the disputed territory, and analyzes their foundations under the light of international law.
Topic:
International Law, Post Colonialism, Sovereignty, Independence, and Self-Determination
Political Geography:
Africa and Western Sahara

2. The political economy of energy production in post-independence Tanzania: A review

Author:
Japhace Poncian and Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
In Tanzania, energy production is a matter of great political significance. Despite government commitment to promote non-hydro renewable energy, like solar and wind deployment, so far has been limited. Large, non-hydro, renewable projects have not yet attracted adequate government interest to get implemented. This new DIIS Working Paper suggests that the prioritisation of different sources of energy has been influenced by major shifts in the country’s broader development policy priorities. Access to electricity has in turn been scaled up. These developments point to the importance of political economy factors influencing energy sector development in Tanzania. The paper examines how such factors have influenced government energy source choice and, more importantly, how renewable energy has featured in Tanzania’s energy politics since independence. The paper is based on a review of existing academic and grey literature on energy sector development, reform, and politics throughout the period from independence in 1961 to 2021.
Topic:
Development, Political Economy, Renewable Energy, Independence, and Energy
Political Geography:
Africa and Tanzania

3. The attitude of the international community to the October 1997 student protests in Kosovo

Author:
Aarjan Janova and Oktaj Hasani
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
During the administration of the former Yugoslavia, the Albanian population of Kosovo was denied the basic right to education. Albanian students, although they were numerically in the majority at the University of Pristina, did not even enjoy the basic rights to education in the Albanian language, despite the fact that this university was Albanian and was founded by Albanians more than 20 years ago. This situation pushed Albanians to organise themselves to defend their freedoms and rights, especially in the field of education. The student protests of October 1997, organised in a spirit of cooperation between students, civil society and teachers, became one of the many factors that brought the treatment of the Albanian people under Slobodan Milosevic's regime to the attention of the world.
Topic:
Human Rights, Protests, International Community, Independence, Freedom, Albanians, and Aggression
Political Geography:
Kosovo and Yugoslavia

4. An EU border across Britain: Scotland’s borders after independence

Author:
Katy Hayward and Nicola McEwen
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
UK in a Changing Europe, King's College London
Abstract:
This report, An EU border across Britain: Scotland’s borders after independence, considers the prospect of an independent Scotland within the European Union, not as a prediction, but to illustrate how Brexit has profoundly changed the context in which independence is contested and could be realised. If an independent Scotland were to join the EU, the Anglo-Scottish border would become not just an international border between Scotland and what remains of the UK, but a new land border between the EU and the UK. Some of the crossborder arrangements for an independent Scotland that had been envisaged in the 2014 referendum would no longer be possible as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU. Because we know what is required by the EU at its external borders, it is possible to outline the border-related ramifications for an independent Scotland with EU membership. Such ramifications centre upon the land border with its closest neighbour.
Topic:
Sovereignty, European Union, Brexit, Borders, Independence, and Referendum
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, and Scotland

5. Protecting Australian Protected Persons

Author:
Savitri Taylor and Jodie Boyd
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article examines the changing concepts of racialised citizenship in two intertwined nations: the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (‘PNG’) and the Commonwealth of Australia (‘Australia’), PNG’s former colonial ruler, as the latter sought to shake off the legacies of its recently abandoned ‘White Australia’ policy. It examines the historical intersection between PNG’s developing citizenship criteria, with its racialised articulation of who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’, and Australia’s efforts to recast its image on the international stage as a multi-racial, non-racist and anti-imperial nation. Specifically, it demonstrates how the intersection of these policy choices impacted on a particular cohort of so-called ‘Australian Protected Persons’ (‘APPs’). APPs who happened also to fall outside PNG’s citizenship criteria were left stateless at PNG’s independence. Drawing on newly released Australian archival material, this article casts light on the particular historical moment that allowed for this outcome.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, Citizenship, Independence, Protected People, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Australia and Papua New Guinea

6. Papuan Independence and Political Disorder in Indonesia

Author:
Sindy Ajara, Laura Sorica, and Elliott Bynum
Publication Date:
10-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Abstract:
In Indonesia, political disorder in Papua and West Papua1 provinces increased in 2021 amid opposition to the revision of the Special Autonomy Law. First promulgated in 2001, the Special Autonomy Law was initially intended to give greater power to the local governments in the Papuan region. However, new revisions to the law introduced in 2021 expand the central government’s authority and have allowed for the unwelcome creation of new provinces in the region (Tempo, 16 July 2021). Tensions between the political demands of many Papuan groups and the centralized, development-oriented agenda of the Indonesian state continue to fuel unrest. This report examines disorder trends related to the issue of Papuan independence since 2018,2 focusing in particular on the rise in clashes between state forces and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), increasing levels of violence targeting civilians by the TPNPB, and disproportionate state intervention in peaceful protests held by Papuans and Papuan groups.3
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Protests, Civilians, and Independence
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Papua

7. Paradoxes of Judicial Independence: Issues and Challenges of Constitutionalism in Pakistan

Author:
Sadia Mahmood Falki and Aisha Shahzad
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Pakistan has oscillated between weak civilian rules and military regimes throughout its history. Military co-option with the judiciary, alongside few exceptions commenced an era of dissolutions in 1988. This led to develop an institutional imbalance which undermined the representative institutions by upholding the presidential orders to dismiss federal and provincial assemblies in Pakistan. The judiciary in Pakistan largely remained a reactionary institution as it endeavored for the self-preservation rather than upholding the constitutionalism and enforcing the rule of law. Judiciary‟s political assertiveness during the decade of 1990s by addressing the political questions led to decline of its impartial character. This research expounds that judiciary‟s informal support for military increased the federal challenges of Pakistan and enhanced the authoritarian features of the state. This paper also explicates that by validating the dismissals of the representative institutions and authorizing the military regimes to amend the constitution, Judiciary compromised its judicial independence, which is one of the salient features of Constitution of 1973. Keeping in view the nature of case study and employing qualitative approach of research, this paper largely addresses the key question that how judicial Independence is relevant to the issues of federalism and democracy in Pakistan.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Constitution, Judiciary, Federalism, Independence, and Civil-Military Relations
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia

8. Through Armed Struggle: Colonial Occupation, National Liberation War and Independence in Mozambique

Author:
José Alejandro Sebastian Barrios Díaz
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Using primary sources from University of Coimbra’s Documentation Center “25 de Abril”, the objective of this paper is to understand the context of Mozambique’s national liberation war, which took place between 1964 and 1975, and to characterize FRELIMO’s role in this conflict from a historical perspective. The paper is divided in three parts, aside from the introduction and concluding remarks. First, the article narrates, in broad strokes, the colonial occupation of the Mozambican territory between the end of the 19th and the 20th century, to then approach the national liberation struggle. The third part describes FRELIMO’s work, its formation and its role in the struggle for independence.
Topic:
Colonialism, Independence, and Armed Resistance
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Portugal

9. Japan, Hikari Kikan, and Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army: The Defining, Yet Unfinished 1940s Connect

Author:
Monika Chansoria
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Japan Institute Of International Affairs (JIIA)
Abstract:
India gained freedom from the British rule following a long, protracted independence struggle, which had many phases, and defining moments. A significant one amongst them was the role of the Indian National Army (INA) under Subhash Chandra Bose with crucial assistance and aid from Imperial Japan. Bose’s view of India’s struggle for independence differed radically from Mahatma Gandhi’s. For him, the war presented a golden opportunity to reach out to the adversaries of Britain, namely Germany and Japan, and seek their assistance to free India from under the oppressive British rule. Gandhi opposed this realist mode of thought and as a consequence Bose found himself marginalized within the Congress. Subhash Chandra Bose, popularly known as Netaji (Respected Leader) among Indians the world over, became the undisputed leader of this militant wing of India’s nationalist movement, over the disagreement of using force against the British Empire with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Notably, despite the opposition of Gandhi, Bose was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1938, and once again in 1939.
Topic:
History, World War II, Army, and Independence
Political Geography:
Japan, India, and Asia

10. Toward a Viable Future for South Sudan

Author:
International Crisis Group
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Ten years after independence, South Sudan is faring poorly, beleaguered by political and socio-economic ills. The civil war’s two main antagonists have an uneasy peace, but others fight on. The country needs a reset rooted in power sharing and devolution of authority from the centre.
Topic:
Civil War, Political Power Sharing, Leadership, State Building, Independence, and Power
Political Geography:
Africa and South Sudan