Writing Resources
This paper proposes that the concept of state sovereignty as seen in modern international relations has outgrown its former usefulness It forces state actors to covertly rely on non state actors in order to carry out foreign policy objectives and it has driven state actors to preserve and enforce notions of sovereignty even in cases where doing so is detrimental In the modern era powerful state actors have found themselves locked in the relentless and unending pursuit of power regardless of how powerful they are nations always strive to be both stronger than they formerly were and stronger than all other nations However the notion of state sovereignty a concept described as supreme authority within a territory
Sovereignty has complicated this pursuit especially after the end of World War Two After the Second World War superpowers such as the Soviet Union and the United States were never directly at war with each other in spite of their radically different beliefs In their bids to defeat the opposing power on all fronts both nations turned to non state actors in order to fulfill their goals through proxy wars an example being the Soviet Afghan war During the Soviet Afghan War the United States saw a Soviet controlled Afghanistan as a threat to its allies and influence in the wider Persian Gulf and the CIA funneled billions of dollars to the anti Soviet Mujahideen which included foreign fighters and various Arab supporters including one Osama Bin Laden Sjursen in order to prevent this Although this funding led to a Soviet defeat in 1989 it also caused a host of unintended consequences which are known as blowback Sjursen
