Forgetting Ourselves

"In Forgetting Ourselves, Linda S. Bishai thoroughly examines why secession has been ignored by the field of International Relations both in theory and in practice. Mainstream perspectives in IR theory have, up to this point, questioned neither state formation nor inside/outside divide of state sovereignty. Bishai, however, historicizes and questions to concept of secession itself, as well as the component assumptions of territoriality and identity upon which it rests. She argues that understanding the historic contingency of secessionist conflict allows us to contemplate an alternative vision of international relations in which the violence associated with controlling territory is no longer necessary for validating political identities."--Jacket.