[governance] Parminder's exchange with Bertrand

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Milton,

Just an interesting quote on that concept of personal or individual
sovereignty :

*State sovereignty, in its most basic sense, is being redefined—not least by
the forces of globalisation and international co-operation. States are now
widely understood to be instruments at the service of their peoples, and not
vice versa. At the same time individual sovereignty—by which I mean the
fundamental freedom of each individual, enshrined in the charter of the **UN
** and subsequent international treaties—has been enhanced by a renewed and
spreading consciousness of individual rights. When we read the charter
today, we are more than ever conscious that its aim is to protect individual
human beings, not to protect those who abuse them.*


This paragraph is by none other than Kofi Annan in a 1999 article in the
Economist titled : *Two concepts of sovereignty*.
Accessible here : http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/kaecon.html

The article was written about military interventions, in the wake of the
Kosovo situation. It's interesting to read it now, in light of what has
happened in the first few years of the XXIst century. Many quesstions K.
Annan raised are still incredibly accurate.

But another quote from the same article resonates with something we
exchanged earlier in this thread :

A new, broader definition of national interest is needed in the new century,
which would induce states to find greater unity in the pursuit of common
goals and values. In the context of many of the challenges facing humanity
today, the collective interest *is* the national interest.


Best

Bertrand


On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 7:11 PM, Bertrand de La Chapelle <
bdelachapelle at gmail.com> wrote:

> Milton,
>
> Do you actually mean a sort of "personal sovereignty" principle, that would
> enable individuals to gather in numerous human groupings, including nations,
> but also business and non-profit entities ? so that the unifying governance
> unit becomes stakeholders of various sizes but with equal status instead of
> three (or four) separate and siloed stakeholder groups ?
>
> B.
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond [ocl at gih.com]
>>
>> > - governments: law and order
>> > - business: economy and money
>> >- civil society: conscience
>> >
>> >Any social ecosystem requires all three to work. Take one out and either
>> >the system will fail, tear itself apart, or reach an untenable extreme.
>> >That's why I believe in multi-stakeholderism.
>>
>> Nice formulation, Olivier. But suppose we called it "popular sovereignty"
>> and "individual rights" instead of "multistakeholderism" -  would that not
>> allow individuals, in various aggregations, to produce the appropriate mix
>> of law, order, economy and conscience? Is not the division into three
>> estates (with millions of individuals overlapping and participating in two
>> or more at the same time) artificial?
>>
>> --MM____________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> ____________________
>
> Bertrand de La Chapelle
> Délégué Spécial pour la Société de l'Information / Special Envoy for the
> Information Society
> Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes/ French Ministry of
> Foreign and European Affairs
> Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32
>
> "Le plus beau métier des hommes, c'est d'unir les hommes" Antoine de Saint
> Exupéry
> ("there is no greater mission for humans than uniting humans")
>



-- 
____________________
Bertrand de La Chapelle
Délégué Spécial pour la Société de l'Information / Special Envoy for the
Information Society
Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes/ French Ministry of Foreign
and European Affairs
Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32

"Le plus beau métier des hommes, c'est d'unir les hommes" Antoine de Saint
Exupéry
("there is no greater mission for humans than uniting humans")
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