Sovereignty, a Swinging Concept Between International Law and Political Reality

The State, as the fundamental unit of the international system, appeals to ultimate power and authority in order to control its own domestic affairs and claims equality as a legal basis regarding its relation with other legal political units. But the existence of the sovereign state in the current international context, where the multiple interdependencies generate divergence and cooperation in the same, is subject to permanent challenges. And the issue is not easy approachable in theory, nor in practice. Like other concepts, as security or democracy, the concept of sovereignty needs to be updated according to the new rules revealed by the process of globalization, rules that are defined not by the equal states, but by the powerful ones.