before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the sub-
sequent ‘War on Terrorism’ forced a further reassessment. The main enemies
of the MDP may well be the US Army and Navy, who would lose yet further
in competition for defence funding were this programme to go ahead. The
‘War on Terrorism’, in which both these forces were heavily involved, forced
MDP down, but not off, the Bush administration’s agenda in late 2001 and
2002.
Sovereignty
Sovereignty means the right to own and control some area of the world. It has,
nowadays, nothing to do withmonarchy, 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 ofcolonial-
ism, 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 againstde factorule
by an e ́lite. Its basic meaning islegitimacyof 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 theEuropean
Unionbecome 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.
Soviet Bloc
The Soviet bloc is a shorthand for those Eastern European states which were
under the more or less firm control of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Sovereignty