Many questions, few answers

In the first decades after World War II, self‐determination mainly referred to the right of former colonies to independence and to join the community of states as equal members. This is how the membership of the United Nations tripled from the 1950s to the 1970s. There was overall agreement on this application of self‐determination and support from leaders of both East and West. In the post‐Cold‐War years, though, national self‐determination has acquired a more controversial meaning and certain explosive qualities because it often entails the break‐up of established states. We have seen this happen in recent years in the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia and the former Czechoslovakia. Of course, because all of those countries had communist regimes, this development can be interpreted as a natural consequence of their clear defeat in the unfought war between East and West. Amidst the collapse of central structures that followed the surrender of the East, many substate units with some kind of separ...