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Fragmentation and the International Relations of Micro-States. By Jorri C. Duursma. Cambridge, Melbourne, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xxv, 450. Index. $89.95.
A fear of national fragmentation continues to haunt discussions of self-determination. In the postcolonial era, many ask, where else can a norm promising autonomy to all "peoples" lead except to the devolution of established states into smaller and almost certainly unsustainable principalities? For many years this prospect clouded the application of self-determination to groups in the developing world, with the unfortunate consequence of tarnishing its prior role in the dismantling of colonial empires. The breakup of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s unexpectedly brought the debate over self-determination to Europe. From the Alma Ata Declaration, to the VanceOwen Plan, to the Badinter Commission opinions, to the Dayton Accords,' the question was raised: how might the autonomy claims of substate actors be addressed without sacrificing the multiethnic, pluralist order that, after all, still typifies most states in the world? The flood of scholarship this question unleashed bore witness to the extent that international lawyers had come to regard this traditionally domestic task of state building as a challenge addressed to the international community at large. In these writings one sensed a hope that Europe, the birthplace of the Westphalian legal order, might provide useful models of autonomy that could help prevent the calamity of fragmentation from spreading to other regions.
Jorri C. Duursma's new book explores two important aspects of this European-based discussion: the evolution of the norm of self-determination and the experience of five European microstates-Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. Duursma begins with an ambitious series of questions directed toward connecting these two issues: "Can anything be learned from the already established Micro-States? How do they survive politically and juridically in the international community of States? What problems may future very small States be faced with? Is micro-statehood better than autonomy?" (p. 1).
Duursma's review of the experience of microstates is a new and interesting contribution to the ongoing debate over self-determination. While her discussion of these two seemingly disparate areas is comprehensive, informative and well organized, the precise relation between self-determination and the microstate-especially at this point in history-remains unclear. None of the...