Independence Movements and Their Aftermath

Self-Determination and the Struggle for Success

Jon B. Alterman, Will Todman

• Publisher: Center for Strategic & International Studies
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781442280816
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: National Security
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This volume explores the varied outcomes that self-determination movements around the world have achieved, and in particular seeks to understand what factors promote better outcomes and what factors promote worse ones. Rather than focusing on the metric of achieving independence, the project evaluates the quality of societies after independence, including such elements as economic strength and political resilience, and it analyzes what factors contribute to different outcomes. The study finds that the single most determinative factor in the success of any independence movement is frequently beyond the control of such a movement, often relating to the global and historical contexts in which the movement finds itself. However, a whole host of factors are within the control of such a movement, but movements do not always seek to act on many of them. Activists become so convinced in the justness of the independence cause that they do not focus on actions that would contribute to greater success after independence.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Bangladesh: Two Independence Movements
• 3. Eritrea: The Independence Struggle and the Struggles of Independence
• 4. Timor-Leste: A Nation of Resistance
• 5. Kosovo: An Unlikely Success Still in the Making
• 6. South Sudan: The Painful Rise and Rapid Descent of the World’s Newest Nation
• 7. The Importance of Being Balanced: Lessons from Negotiated Settlements to Self-Determination Movements in Bosnia, Macedonia, and Kosovo
• 8. Generalizing the Findings
• 9. Self-Determination and U.S. Choices
• 10. Conclusion
• About the Authors
• Advisory Board Members
• About CSIS