Sovereignty means the right to own and control some area of the world. It has, nowadays, nothing to do with monarchy, which might seem to be implied by the connotation of sovereign, but entirely refers to the idea of independent rule by a country or institution over a certain territory or set of political concerns. Thus a country might dispute the sovereignty of an island over which another country had established control, claiming that they had the right to rule. It is a curiously important concept which is applicable to the ideology of colonialism, but can, at the same time, be used inside one country. Thus it is possible, for example, to talk about the sovereignty of the people, as against de facto rule by an élite. Its basic meaning is legitimacy of rule, as opposed to actual power.
As a result, those who actually control a country, even though they may have done so for a long time, may face denial of their sovereignty over that area. A secondary meaning that has become important more recently focuses on the idea of national independence, the sole right of the authorities of a particular country to take decisions affecting its citizens. So, especially in the United Kingdom, debates about extending the powers of the European Union become entangled in the language of sovereignty; those opposed to an extension insist that the UK would be giving up its sovereignty were it to adopt the common European currency, the euro, controlled by the European Central Bank. Similarly, verification of arms control agreements has required intrusive inspection of countries’ military facilities, requiring a relaxation of sovereignty. A rival concept has been developed to deal with some of these issues—the idea of ‘pooled sovereignty’. Thus in the case of Europe, instead of seeing anyone giving up sovereignty, all member states ‘pool’ their sovereignty together. Whether this is anything more than verbal gymnastics will only become clear if issues arise in which the outcome is different from what it would have been had sovereignty actually been abandoned.
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