Experts on international law and state sovereignty discussed the right to self-determinationits origins, what it entails, and the nature of international legal language sanctioning and defining it. Focusing on U.S. policy toward actual self-determination and separatist movements and the strategies and options available to the United States to mediate or intercede in them, the Institute of Peace and the State Department's Policy Planning Staff held a second meeting in March 1996 to examine ways that the United States and the international community might work to promote successful outcomes to territorial or separatist disputes, with "successful" broadly defined as nonviolent and nonsecessionist.

When does the U.S. support partition of a warring or failing state? Why has the U.S. supported partition for some secessionists, or irredentists, but not for others? Is it a policy of last resort or are there certain variables that are strong determinants of this position right from the start? This book seeks to answer these questions by examining U.S. policy toward secessionist movements in three countries during the first decade following the end of the Cold War: Iraq, Ethiopia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This book uses detailed comparative examintion of U.S. policies in these three cases to assess the relative impact of a number of factors in U.S. decisionmaking.

As the Kurdish question becomes more prominent in Middle Eastern politics, it is attracting attention from the media, the academic community, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. Swamped with questions from the press and academic departments, students of Kurdish topics have needed a comprehensive bibliography on the Kurds. This book meets that need. An introductory essay provides users with general background information on the Kurds and Kurdistan. With over 800 entries, the annotated bibliography provides information on the most important works about the Kurds and Kurdistan published from World War II through 1996. Emphasizing recent titles, the book focuses on English-language scholarly works. Arranged in topical chapters, the book opens with a section on general works, then covers travel works, history and archaeology, politics, minorities and religion in Kurdistan, society, economy, language and education, literature and folklore, and culture and arts.

The definitive study of the doctrine of self-determination of peoples.