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The contemporary global order is witnessing profound transformations in the meaning, exercise, and organization of sovereignty. Rather than simply indicating a decline of state sovereignty, these transformations raise a fundamental question: how is sovereignty being reconfigured in an increasingly fragmented, interconnected, and uncertain global system?
This panel explores the changing nature of sovereignty beyond the conventional understanding of the state as the primary locus of political authority. It brings together theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives on how sovereign authority is increasingly shaped by interactions among states, international institutions, transnational actors, private corporations, and other sources of political and economic power.
These transformations also raise important questions about popular and citizen sovereignty. If, in democratic political thought, sovereignty ultimately resides in the people and citizens exercise it through state institutions, what does it mean for citizens’ sovereignty when political authority and functions traditionally exercised by states are increasingly shared with, delegated to, or constrained by actors beyond the state? The panel therefore considers who exercises sovereignty, who constitutes the sovereign, and how citizens can remain meaningful sovereign actors when authority is dispersed.
A further concern is the political and conceptual significance of “state failure.” Rather than treating state failure solely as an objective condition of institutional weakness, the panel invites critical examination of how categories such as “failed,” “fragile,” and “weak” states are constructed and politically mobilized. Such classifications may shape external intervention, international recognition, the allocation of authority, and the legitimacy of political orders, affecting the relationship between state and popular sovereignty.
The panel welcomes contributions addressing questions such as: Is sovereignty being weakened, transformed, or redistributed? Who defines the boundaries of legitimate state authority? How do international power hierarchies shape the recognition and exercise of sovereignty? What happens to citizen sovereignty when political authority is increasingly exercised beyond the state? And to what extent can governance remain democratic and accountable when sovereign functions are dispersed across state, international, and non-state actors?
The panel contributes to debates on the future of the state, the transformation of sovereignty, and the possibilities and limits of democratic self-government in a fragmented global order.