Sovereignty, though its meanings have varied across history, also has a core meaning, supreme authority within a territory. It is a modern notion of political authority. Historical variants can be understood along three dimensions -- the holder of sovereignty, the absoluteness of sovereignty, and the internal and external dimensions of sovereignty. The state is the political institution in which sovereignty is embodied. An assemblage of states forms a sovereign states system.
One way in which sovereignty is being circumscribed is through European integration. Over time, European integration has widened, most recently in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty, which expanded the institution’s powers and reconfigured it as the European Union. Far from a replacement for states, the European Union rather “pools” important aspects of their sovereignty into a “supranational” institution in which their freedom of action is constrained.
They are no longer absolutely sovereign. Today, European integration continues. Core states in the European Union are now considering integrating their defense forces, at least for certain purposes. |
