While political debate today is focused on the slow but steady disintegration of the so-called world order, the crises affecting the concept of statehood, the foundation of any world order, may not be receiving the attention it merits.
Ever since it appeared in its early and vague contours, statehood as a concept has been challenged by a range of factors — from paganism and its ritual to organized religion, ideology, despotic adventures, private financial power, and, more recently, globalization.
Statehood had to overcome tribalism and adopt the broader concept of “the people” as foundation bloc. It then had to ward off a challenge by organized religion and develop the concept of citizenship. What emerged was a world of nation-states that could coexist, albeit not always in peace, within a world order based on international law.
