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Any examination of self-determination runs promptly into the difficulty
that while the concept lends itself to simple formulation in words which
have a ring of universal applicability and perhaps of revolutionary slogans,
when the time comes to put it into operation it turns out to be a complex
matter hedged in by limitations and caveats. In a different turn of phrase,
what is stated in big print—as in the reiterated United Nations injunction:
All peoples have the right to self-determination—is drastically modified by
what follows in small print. Indeed, once the major original exercise of
self-determination has been undertaken, the small print takes over and
becomes the big print which establishes the new and far more restrictive
guidelines.

In a period in which the concept of self‐determination has become a cliche, it seems astonishing that it occupies the center of the historical stage in the various searches for a community in the horn of Africa. Thus, the concept itself might indeed have been a cliche, but not for the millions of human beings that have sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, their lives for the sake of a way of life that the concept promises.

National self-determination : a deadly mobilizing device / Erin Jenne -- The political economy of secession / Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler -- Self-determination in the twenty-first century / Hurst Hannum -- Uncoupling secession from nationalism and intrastate autonomy from secession / Allen Buchanan -- Self-determination as a component of conflict intractability : implications for negotiation / Eileen F. Babbitt -- Self-determination as self-definition : the case of Morocco / Susan Slyomovics -- Negotiating self-determination : is it a viable alternative to violence? / Eileen F. Babbitt

The interplay between national self-determination, the colonial legacy, the concept of sovereignty and the nature of state formation is what is at issue in any understanding of political development in the Pacific Islands. These complex territorial entities, scattered over thousands of square miles of ocean, embrace a vast range of cultural, geographical and linguistic diversity. Indigenous social and political organisation has been overlaid by arbitrary colonial divisions, and a model of western-style nation state formation promulgated by UN agencies. In the event, many of the fundamental economic and political problems of these societies have never been properly addressed-a situation exacerbated by the growing recourse to interventionism against 'failed' states by the most powerful. Any starting point for true self-determination in Oceania has to be found in indigenous practices of self-government.

A symposium on national independence & self-determination in postcommunist countries. In Self-Determination and War: The Case of Yugoslavia, Branka Magas discusses the origins of the Yugoslavian conflict, blames the Left in Europe for defending Yugoslavia against its secessionist republics, & argues that the Yugoslavian conflict represents the destruction of once-autonomous states rather than simply the eruption of retrograde nationalisms. In Nationalism: Barrier to Progress, Ernest Erber argues that: the nation-state & the principle of national sovereignty is in historical decline, nationalism plays an increasingly reactionary role, & the right of national self-determination will fade as ethnic minority rights are subsumed under the expanding umbrella of human rights. In Nationalism and the Self, Lynne Jones discusses psychological aspects of nationalism, examines the relation between the self & historical processes, & argues that Yugoslavia illustrates how the rejection of nationalist aspirations tends, paradoxically, to intensify them. In Really Existing Nationalism, Bogdan Denitch argues that nationalism provides a collective identity that can be adopted to protect against the collapse of universalisms, eg, communism. In Democracy and the Right to Secede, Martin Thomas argues that Slovenia & Croatia had a right to secede. In Self-Determination: As a Contingency Principle, John Feffer argues that Left-oriented analyses of nationalism & the legitimacy of states suffer from a latent libertarianism that seriously compromises the discussion of self-determination. In Self-Determination: A Democratic Political Principle, Samuel Farber contends that: the self-determination of nations is a fundamental democratic principle, self-determination is crucial for progressive political change, & self-determination has little to do with nationalism. W. Howard

Argues in favor of a conception of self-determination which involves equal recognition of different national identities. Self-determination of peoples in international law, philosophy, and political practice, and objections to national self-determination.