South Sudan: state sovereignty challenged at infancy

Abstract

South Sudan is losing control over its territory. The state was born prematurely into a conflict society where fragility is manifested through multiple challenges. Although the emerging state fulfilled the declarative requirements of a state in international law, the tools needed to build a sovereign state were lacking and South Sudan descended rapidly into another civil war and disorder. The theoretical significance of this paper lies in its explanation of the theory of sovereignty with relevance to the emergence of South Sudan as a state. It examines how post-conflict policies, decisions, and practical actions have influenced trends of national sovereignty. A variety of conflicts, and political violence and poor infrastructure in particular, challenge the capacity of South Sudan to maintain control over its territory. Using descriptive research approaches this paper concludes that legacies of prolonged civil war including unresolved issues within the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, politico-military incongruent policies, and communal violence present serious challenges to the Government of South Sudan as it struggles to sustain its independence.

Keywords:

• South Sudan
• Sudan
• state sovereignty
• national interest
• militia and armed groups
• political violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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2. Radon and Logan, South Sudan: Governance Arrangements, War and Peace, 159.

3. Christensen, Experimental Methodology, 54.

4. International Crisis Group, Sudan and South Sudan's Merging Conflicts, 10–16.

5. Fawcett and Hurrell, Regionalism in World Politics.

6. LeRiche and Arnold, South Sudan: From Revolution to Independence, 189–90.

7. Payne, The Regional Politics of Development.

8. Walraet, “State-Making and Emerging Complexes”, 179–86.

9. International Crisis Group, South Sudan: A Civil War by Any Other Name, 18–19.

10. Apuuli, Explaining the (il)legality of Uganda's intervention, 1.

11. Claude, Swords into the Ploughshares: the problems and progress.

12. Hagmann and Péclard, Negotiating Statehood: dynamics of power.

13. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law, 72–3.

14. Rourke and Boyer, World Politics: international politics.

15. Reynolds, An Introduction to International Relations, 35–8.

16. Ibid., 35–50.

17. Rourke and Boyer, World Politics.

18. Rolandsen, “Too Much Water under the Bridge”, 30–6.

19. Akehurst, A Modern Introduction to International Law, 161.

20. African Union, Implementation Matrix.

21. HSBA, The Abyei Crisis.

22. Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 74.

23. Ibid., 221–23.

24. Young, The Fate of Sudan, 226–58.

25. Childress, South Sudan Seeks Statehood.

26. International Crisis Group, Sudan and South Sudan's Merging Conflicts, 10–14.

27. Hagmann and Péclard, Negotiating Statehood.

28. Borzel and Risse, “Human rights and Arenas of Limited Statehood”.

29. International Crisis Group (ICG), Politics and Transition in the New South Sudan, 172; Childress, South Sudan Seeks.

30. Young, South Sudan Defence Forces, 13–24; LeRiche and Arnold, South Sudan, 159–62.

31. IRIN, “Sudan: Civilian Disarmament Remains Elusive”.

32. Lewis, Skirting the Law Sudan's post CPA arms flow, 54–6.

33. Young, The Fate of Sudan: the origins, 318–25.

34. Heaton and Hsiao, Sometimes We See Ourselves Apart, 1–11.

35. OCHA, Humanitarian Bulletin: South Sudan Update, 1–3.

36. Blanchard, The Crisis in South Sudan, 2–8.

37. Wassara, Predictable Causes and Prospects, 1–3.

38. Hagmann and Hoehne, “Failures of the State Failure Debate”, 44–6.