Sovereignty

Abstract Although intricately related, the concepts of sovereignty and power should be kept apart. Sovereignty designates a distinct form of political power characterized by its own institutional structures and historical development as well as by its discordant relationship with religion. For this reason one single and concise definition of sovereignty is difficult to provide. Understanding sovereignty means unfolding the historical, conceptual, and institutional components that shaped its meaning and determine its force; and to understand how the concept and practice of sovereignty is being reshaped today under the impetus of globalization we first need grasp the historical emergence of the concept and its different components. Modern political sovereignty has served as a catalyst that regulated the dominant power structures of modernity and with every change in political structures we can see the concept of sovereignty evolving with it (Sassen 2006).