Abstract
By reframing sovereignty as a functional capacity rather than an exclusive territorial claim, this paper offers an account of shared or collaborative sovereignty: the co-authoring of rules and the co-enforcement of norms by states through legitimate global institutions. Drawing on international relations theory, this study theorizes that the long-term resilience of multilateral governance is not predicated on coercion and hierarchy, but on legitimacy derived from various aspects of participation, procedural fairness, and shared standards of performance. Grounded in the case of international civil aviation governance as an embedded global field within the UN system, the study finds that sovereignty is exercised with less monopoly and more of a distribution of authority, through the institutional architecture, regulatory harmonization, and soft power, rather than unilateral capacity. Empirically, ICAO exemplifies institutional resilience and legitimacy sources in a context of deep interdependence and geopolitical diversity. Methodologically, this project develops a research agenda for global IR beyond Eurocentricity by examining the relationship between functional regimes in a multipolar system that retain rule-based cooperation without reproducing conventional forms of hegemony. It thus contends that sovereignty beyond borders is not a flight from the state or a dereliction of authority, but a higher order diplomatic and institutional practice fit for purpose in a globally interdependent world.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
SOVEREIGNTY, LEGITIMACY, GLOBAL GOVERNANCE, MULTILATERALISM, FUNCTIONAL REGIMES, GLOBAL IR, COLLABORATIVE SOVEREIGNTY
