Sovereignty ungrounded: Ecopolitics, territory, and sovereignty in Latin America

David Alan Martin, Purdue University

Abstract

Mainstream International Relations theory defines sovereignty as a property of territorial states. The emergence of global ecopolitical NGOs has challenged the traditional relationship between territory and sovereignty by proposing alternate constructions of territory. These alternate constructions of territoriality have emerged most clearly in post-colonial Latin American states where conflicts have erupted between ecopolitics and economic development. A critical reading of the discourse of mainstream sovereignty and ecopolitics through three case studies—petroleum development in the Ecuadoran Amazon, the creation of a private nature preserve in southern Chile, and the Grande Carajas Iron Ore mine in the Brazilian Amazon—reveals that the signified of sovereignty has split. Territoriality in the post-colonial Latin American state can be read in terms of three constructions—the territoriality of the post-colonial state; the territoriality of global ecopolitical organizations; and the territoriality of global financial IGOs. The diversity of territorial constructs produces a diversity in the structure of sovereignty that requires the marginalization of these constructs by the mainstream discourse of International Relations theory.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Weber, Purdue University.

Subject Area

International law|International relations|Environmental science

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