Sovereignty and regional co-operation during crises: Formulating principles of ‘regional justice’?

Regions become increasingly relevant in times of crises. An example is how refugees often primarily flee to neighboring states. Another example is conserving species or natural resources that cross the borders of nation-states. Rivers are classical examples, as are exploiting joint resources. Regions are also central units for energy transitions. Intuitions suggests that it would be wrong of a sovereign state to not aid a neighboring state and regional cooperation is imperative. In this presentation I will investigate ‘regional obligations’, meaning special obligations that sovereign states have to other states when certain conditions are fulfilled, but which do not hold towards other states. Political philosophy most often either discuss principles of cosmopolitan or national justice, making regions a normative blind spot. I will outline four approaches that justify potential regional obligations. First, regional obligations arise from voluntary agreement of nation states, preserving national sovereignty. Second, adjacent states may have a shared history or culture, evoking communitarian-like obligations. Third, there may be what could be called ‘place-based’ reasons for regional cooperation, such as when two states share a natural resource, giving rise to joint obligations to preserve that resource. A fourth approach is that a state does not have obligations to a neighboring state per se, but rather to individual right-holders. Should a sovereign state fail to meet its objective of ensuring autonomy of right-holders, then other states must aid those right-holders, and special obligations fall on neighboring states. This evokes issues of who is a right-holder and how their claims are justified. Recent expansions of the concept of rights to include nature are here relevant. I will critically scrutinize these approaches and investigate possible ‘regional’ principles of justice.