From Territorial to Monetary Sovereignty

Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity, and the Right to Secession

Modalities of National Sovereignty: Territorial Nationalism versus Islamic Fundamentalism in Muslim-Majority Countries

I employ the concept of modality in order to capture the configurations of homogeneous elements that may exist in a heterogeneous context encompassing diverse nationalist movements. Modalities of nationalism are varied outcomes of the efforts of intellectuals to resolve issues concerning the identity of their political community, its boundaries, and the ideal political regime. A modality rests ...

Sovereignty and Sociology: from State Theory to Theories of Empire

Imperial crisis is the analytical axis on which turn two national states of emergency: the Weimar Republic (1918!1933) and the United States on the so-called “Eve of Destruction” (1965!1975). But while Max Weber disagreed with Carl Schmitt with respect to the problem of sovereignty at the core of the German imperium, American sociologists ! even those inspired by Weber ! by and large did not re...

Fear, Sovereignty, and the Right to Die

This paper addresses the “right to die” through the lens of Derrida’s The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume One. Specifically focusing on the case of Tony Nicklinson v. Ministry of Justice, 2012, the essay posits two things. First, Derrida’s insight helps us understand how a “fear of death” is a fundamental performative feature of sovereignty politics. Second, in order to maintain its performativ...

From Hard Currency Policy to Monetary Union

In the wake of monetary integration in Europe, Austria abandoned the tested hard currency policy (HCP) for joining EMU as a member. The final target of monetary policy and real sector adjustment needs are similar in both regimes, and the HCP may therefore be viewed as a convenient "training camp" for later EMU accession. Georg Winckler devoted a number of essays on the critique, but also on the...