Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has prompted swift and increasingly extensive economic sanctions from Western allies against Russian companies and members of its political and economic elite. Many of the sanctions have been justified as punishment for Russia’s ongoing violation of the integrity of Ukrainian sovereign territory. They were announced by the United States (US) and its allies, including Canada, the United Kingdom (UK) and Japan, as a means to oppose Russia’s continued occupation of Crimea, the pro-Russian Donbas separatist region, and additional areas that the Russian military has advanced into since the outbreak of the current war.Despite claiming to protect territorial integrity as a critical and universal value, the international community has been largely selective in how it enforces its desire to observe this universal value. Instead, national interest in whether to weaken a “rogue” state facing geographical disintegration, or strengthen a “friendly” potential ally, is a higher priority when individual states decide whether the idea of territorial sovereignty applies on a case-by-case basis. Two examples in Africa in recent years serve to illustrate the contrast between how territorial integrity is treated in rogue and friendly states.
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- Published in
- South Africa
