IB DP Global Politics – Core topic – Sovereignty in global politics Study Guide

This study guide teaches the core prescribed topic “Sovereignty in global politics” for IB Diploma Programme Global Politics. It follows the IB Diploma Programme Global politics guide (first assessment 2026, published February 2024), the course examined from the May 2026 session onwards. The topic sits in the core topics (“Understanding power and global politics”), which are common to SL and HL, so everything here applies at both levels.

Then use the sovereignty revision notes and practice questions. The IB DP Global Politics course hub and printable syllabus checklist show where the topic sits.

What this unit covers

Prescribed content	What you must be able to do	Level
Traditional and modern notions of state sovereignty	Explain the Westphalian model and newer ideas such as popular, pooled and responsible sovereignty; judge which notion fits a case	SL and HL
Sources of sovereignty	Explain how force, international law and norms, recognition by other states, and consent of the governed create or support sovereignty	SL and HL
Internal and external dimensions of sovereignty	Distinguish authority inside a state’s borders from independence and standing outside them	SL and HL
Challenges to state sovereignty	Analyse challenges from other states, interdependence, supranational bodies, humanitarian intervention and non-state actors, and evaluate how serious each is	SL and HL

The guide describes sovereignty as a state’s independence, its control over territory and its ability to govern itself, and treats it as contestable. Some writers think globalization is wearing it away; others think states acting in their national interest remain very powerful. You gain marks by showing that the answer depends on which meaning you use.

Traditional and modern notions of sovereignty

The traditional (Westphalian) notion

The traditional model is traced to the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years’ War. Historians debate how much the treaties created it, but the label stuck. It has four features:

• Territoriality – authority is tied to a fixed territory with clear borders.
• Supreme authority – inside that territory, the state has the final say. Classic thinkers such as Jean Bodin (1576) and Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) saw sovereignty as absolute and indivisible.
• Non-intervention – outside actors have no right to decide what happens inside another state.
• Legal equality – every sovereign state has the same formal rights, however large or small.

The UN Charter (1945) builds these in: sovereign equality (Article 2(1)), no threat or use of force against territorial integrity (Article 2(4)) and no UN intervention in domestic matters, except enforcement under Chapter VII (Article 2(7)).

Modern notions

Modern notions treat sovereignty as something that can be shared, conditional or held by the people.

• Popular sovereignty – final authority belongs to the people, and the state holds it on their behalf. This links to the guide’s point about consent of the governed through political participation.
• Pooled sovereignty – states choose to exercise some powers jointly, as EU members do for trade policy.
• Sovereignty as responsibility – a state keeps its right to non-intervention only if it protects its people. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was set out by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty in 2001 and endorsed by UN members at the 2005 World Summit.
• Digital or data sovereignty – states try to control data that crosses borders. The EU’s GDPR (applied from 2018) reaches firms outside the EU that handle EU residents’ data.

Stephen Krasner (1999) split the concept into four meanings: domestic sovereignty (effective control at home), interdependence sovereignty (control over cross-border flows), international legal sovereignty (recognition) and Westphalian sovereignty (no outside actors in domestic authority). A state can be strong on one and weak on another.

Worked example: applying the notions

Task: A eurozone member cannot set its own interest rates, because monetary policy is run by the European Central Bank. Has it lost sovereignty?

1. Choose the notion. Under the traditional notion, yes: a key power now sits with a body outside the state’s own authority.
2. Apply a modern notion. Under pooled sovereignty, the state chose to share the power by treaty and helps shape ECB policy through its central bank governor. It could, in law, leave the EU under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.
3. Use Krasner’s split. Domestic and international legal sovereignty are intact. Interdependence sovereignty over money flows is reduced.
4. Judge. The state has given up some control but not its authority. The answer depends on the notion used, which is exactly the point the guide makes.

Sources of sovereignty

The guide lists several areas to consider. Treat them as ways a state gains, keeps or proves sovereignty.

Source	How it supports sovereignty	Contemporary example
Possession and use of force	Max Weber (1919) defined the state by its monopoly of the legitimate use of force in a territory. A state that cannot enforce its rules loses effective control.	In Haiti, armed gangs came to control much of the capital after the 2021 assassination of President Moïse; the UN Security Council authorised a Kenya-led security mission in 2023.
International law and norms	Treaties and customs protect territorial integrity and non-intervention. The Montevideo Convention (1933) lists four criteria for statehood: permanent population, defined territory, government, capacity to enter relations with other states.	UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 (2014) affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity after Russia annexed Crimea.
Recognition by other states	Recognition gives a state diplomatic standing, treaties and UN membership. Decisions often reflect economics and the balance of power.	Nicaragua (2021) and Honduras (2023) switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and is recognised by many states but is not a UN member.
Consent of the governed	Participation in elections and referendums gives authority a popular base; lack of consent weakens it.	Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum, agreed with the UK government, tested consent peacefully (about 55% voted to stay).

Recognition: two theories

• Declaratory theory – a state exists once it meets the factual criteria; recognition just acknowledges it.
• Constitutive theory – a state only exists as a state when others recognise it.

Palestine shows the gap between them. It has been a UN non-member observer state since 2012 and is recognised by many states, yet it lacks full control over its territory.

Internal and external dimensions

	Internal sovereignty	External sovereignty
Meaning	Supreme authority over people and territory inside the borders	Independence from outside control and recognition as an equal by other states
Shown by	Making and enforcing laws, taxing, controlling force	Diplomatic recognition, UN membership, signing treaties, non-intervention
Main threat	Armed groups, secession, loss of consent	Invasion, interference, supranational rules, intervention

A related distinction is de jure sovereignty (the legal right to rule) versus de facto sovereignty (actual control). They can split. Somalia’s federal government has had de jure recognition for years while armed groups such as al-Shabaab control parts of its territory. Taiwan has strong de facto internal sovereignty but formal recognition from only a small number of states.

Challenges to state sovereignty

Whether something counts as a challenge depends on which notion of sovereignty you examine, as the guide notes. Build that into every answer.

Challenges from states and the international system

• Increased global interdependence. Capital, data, disease and pollution cross borders. States respond by pooling power: the 15% global minimum corporate tax agreed by more than 130 jurisdictions in 2021 limits tax autonomy but restores collective control over firms that shift profits.
• Influence or interference from other states. This ranges from invasion (Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022) to economic pressure and election interference. Russia presented the 2014 Crimea referendum as popular consent; the UN General Assembly voted to call the referendum invalid. The case sets popular claims against territorial integrity.
• Supranationality. Supranational bodies make rules that bind members even against their wishes. EU law takes priority over national law (Court of Justice, Costa v ENEL, 1964). The UK’s 2016 referendum and exit in January 2020 were argued partly on sovereignty grounds; others argued that pooling had given the UK more influence, not less.
• Humanitarian intervention. R2P allows collective action when a state fails to protect its people. UN Security Council resolution 1973 (2011) authorised measures to protect civilians in Libya. Critics said the NATO campaign moved towards regime change. On Syria, Russian and Chinese vetoes blocked Chapter VII action, showing that intervention still depends on great-power agreement.

Challenges from non-state actors and alternative claims

• Indigenous national claims and alternative notions of sovereignty. Many Indigenous peoples see authority as coming from long relationships with land, not from the state. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) affirms self-determination; Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US voted against, then later endorsed it. In New Zealand, the Māori text of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) guaranteed tino rangatiratanga (full chieftainship), which many Māori read as retained authority. Norway, Sweden and Finland each have an elected Sámi Parliament.
• Transnational cultural groups. Kurds live across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Iraq’s Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum in 2017, which Baghdad rejected.
• Nationalist movements. Compare Scotland (an agreed referendum in 2014) with Catalonia (a 2017 referendum ruled illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court, followed by direct rule under Article 155).
• Violent non-state actors. The Islamic State group declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and lost its last territory in Syria in 2019. It directly challenged the monopoly of force.
• Influence of TNCs. Large firms can move investment, shape rules and sue states. Philip Morris brought an investment-treaty claim against Uruguay’s tobacco labelling laws; Uruguay won in 2016, which shows both the pressure and its limits.

Worked example: judging a challenge

Task: Is the Kurdish case mainly a challenge to internal or external sovereignty?

1. Internal: it contests Baghdad’s final authority in one region.
2. External: it asks other states to recognise a new state; few supported the 2017 vote, which limited its effect.
3. Alternative notion: many Kurds frame the claim as a people’s right to self-determination across four states.
4. Judgement: mainly internal, because recognition was withheld, but it tests the Westphalian idea that borders are fixed.

Sovereignty across the thematic studies

The guide asks you to examine sovereignty in the light of all three thematic studies.

Thematic study	Where sovereignty matters
Rights and justice	Non-intervention versus universal rights; R2P
Development and sustainability	Conditions attached to loans; control over natural resources; climate treaties
Peace and conflict	Secession, territorial disputes, violent non-state actors, peacekeeping consent

See the Rights and justice and Peace and conflict study guides.

How this topic is examined

• Paper 1 (1 hour 15 minutes, 25 marks; 30% at SL, 20% at HL) is source-based and draws on the core topics. It has four sources and four compulsory questions worth 3, 4, 6 and 12 marks. Sovereignty is a likely focus.
• Paper 2 (1 hour 45 minutes, 30 marks) section B has integrating questions that link the thematic studies and the core topics.
• Examples should mostly be contemporary (roughly the past two decades, in the guide’s terms); use older cases only as background.
• “Distinguish” (AO2) needs the difference made explicit; “evaluate” and “to what extent” (AO3) need a weighed judgement.

Common errors

• Treating sovereignty and legitimacy as the same. A government can be sovereign but widely seen as illegitimate, and the reverse.
• Saying a challenge “destroys” sovereignty without saying which notion or dimension is affected.
• Naming an example without explaining how it shows the point.
• Assuming supranationality is always a loss. States choose to pool powers and can often withdraw.
• Mixing up recognition by other states (de jure) with control on the ground (de facto).

Next steps

• Condense with the revision notes, then try the practice questions.
• Review how Paper 1 is marked in the Global Politics assessment revision notes and the exam preparation guide.
• See the full course map in the Global Politics syllabus guide.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Global politics guide, first assessment 2026 (published February 2024) – core topics, prescribed topic “Sovereignty in global politics”.