Sovereignty is an issue that comes up a lot in New Zealand. One of the reasons is Rev Henry William's decision to translate "sovereignty" as "governorship" in the treaty. This was a moot point, but with the invention of Maori nationalism in 1975 by the Treaty of Waitangi Act and the gravy train it enabled the point is debated endlessly in New Zealand. It is a distinction without a difference that Williams made at the time because "governorship" was a straightforward hierarchical term that Maori understood and the juristic intricacies of Westphalian sovereignty were pointless to explain. Even with the signing of the treaty sovereignty was still held by no one in real terms, but it existed on paper as far as the European powers were concerned. Sovereignty was purely theoretical until the government was capable of exercising its reality across the entire landmass.
In 1932, German jurist Carl Schmitt put it this way in The Concept of the Political: "Sovereign is he who determines the state of exception."
Ask yourself who has the power to wage war? Who has the power to declare a State of Emergency? Who can suspend life as we know it and rule with absolute power? That person is The Sovereign. In New Zealand, this is the Prime Minister and we know this to be a fact because we experienced it in 2020-2024 under Jacinda Ardern.
There is one more layer we have not discussed though, and that is the power of defence. Who could defend New Zealand against another Sovereign? We know that our navy is incapable of such a thing. We do not truly have sovereignty because we rely on the goodwill of Australia, Great Britain, and the United States to intervene should a Great Power move against us. In that sense we are vassals of the United States. Trump is the Sovereign when it comes to our independence being guaranteed.
The question of sovereignty for the Cook Islands falls in that hierarchy too. They are sovereign to a degree, but they are part of our Realm and dependent on us for all manner of goodwill. They should be careful. They need us a whole lot more than we need them.
Ukraine and Europe are learning a lesson about sovereignty at the moment. President Trump is negotiating with Putin on ending the Ukraine War. The Ukrainian and European governments have expressed outrage, but who are they to be outraged? Are they sovereign in any meaningful sense or are they vassals of the United States? They are dependent on the goodwill of the Americans. Since losing World War 2, Europe has been occupied to one degree or another by America and Russia.
The American taxpayer underwrites the borders of Europe, and the American taxpayer has grown tired. MAGA wants their vassals to pick up the slack. To arise from slumber and to take back a productive place in the imperial hierarchy. The only way that can be done is through territorial concessions to the Russian Sovereign.
European leaders abandoned their sovereignty so they could have generous welfare states and infinity immigrants to ethnically replace their own people. They abdicated sovereignty so they could feel smug and superior as they lectured us about their liberal globalist virtues. They sleep-walked into an unwinnable war in the firm belief that lines drawn on a map must not be redrawn. They pretended as if Europe in general and Ukraine in particular consisted of inalienable sovereign states.
Now they panic. Now they screech. Now they are horrified. Now they see who is sovereign.
The Long Twentieth Century came to an end on 9th January 2025.
The Twenty First Century has begun.