What we know so far…
There are
three competing parties. We have the Khemedians, the Syldavians and the
Bordurians. All of them, for different reasons, want to be the exclusive
sovereign over Khemed.
They have all
realised that fighting or going to war would not bring about a good outcome for
any of them. In fact, they would waste precious time and many of their valuable
resources, including people. They have concluded that cooperation in finding a
solution is the best way to proceed. And they have agreed that for different
reasons, all three parties have at least a colourable claim over Khemed. From
there, they all accepted to be part of the negotiations in which they will
finally decide who the sovereign is.
Before going
into the negotiations, the parties will have many questions. Amongst these
questions we may have:
- Who will represent each population?
- What kind of procedure will the negotiations follow?
- How are the representatives going to allocate the sovereignty over Khemed? Only to one of them? To some? To all?
- If the representatives decided to allocate the sovereignty to only one of the parties, would the others receive any sort of compensation?
- If the representatives decided to divide the sovereignty amongst them, how would they do it? Would they opt for equality or for different shares of sovereignty?
We may think
of many other questions. However, we can already see the parties in the
negotiations over sovereignty will have to deal with many points. Not only is
that because we have more than one party but also because sovereignty is a
multi-level concept that includes aspects related to many areas such as
territory, people, government and law. From there, the representatives in the
negotiations will have to agree on issues relates to exploration and
exploitation of natural resources, borders, defence, human rights, immigration,
criminal law, language, and many others. Indeed, we all belong to plural
societies. Pluralism is a fact and has to be addressed when discussing the
sovereignty of any populated territory.
Negotiations: We need representatives
In order to
start the negotiations about the sovereignty over Khemed each party will have
to select their representatives. That is to say, Khemed, Syldavia and Borduria
will have to conduct internal procedures and select who will represent them in
the negotiations. Each party is completely independent of the other. From
there, each party will follow its internal procedure without any interference
from the other two.
Once Khemed,
Syldavia and Borduria select their representatives the negotiations will start.
A main problem the representatives will face is that unless they are all
impartial, each of them will result in simply supporting the claim of the party
whom they represent. That is to say, the Kemedian representative will want a
decision that guarantees the best possible outcome for Khemed. Similarly, the
Syldavian representative will want to reach an agreement in which Syldavia
takes it all. And finally, the Bordurian representative will try to make sure
that Borduria is the one resulting in the complete holder of the sovereignty
over Khemed. With this in mind, how can we make sure these representatives
avoid taking a stance only because they aim to reach an agreement by which the
party whom they represent result in the sole winner?
These pages
have to do with an imaginary story, one in which three peoples the Khemedians,
the Syldavians and the Bordurians have selected representatives amongst them to
go into negotiations in order to decide the sovereignty over Khemed. Because
this is an imaginary story and therefore, the negotiations are also imaginary,
we can think of any condition the representatives will have to comply with.
Because the main problem we can identify for these negotiations will be the
fact that each representative will take side and think only of the peoples they
represent, let us neutralise this point. How? Simply by assuming the
representatives will not know whom they represent.
In short, the representatives
of the three populations: Khemed, Syldavia, and Borduria, will go into the negotiations without
knowing whom they represent but with access to any other information about the
three parties, their claims, and anything and everything related to Khemed and
its sovereignty. By proceeding in this way, we attain two very important
things.
First, none of
the parties represented in the negotiations will be in a better position at the
set out since they all have access to the same information and none of the
representatives can take a biased stance. This way of proceeding guarantees
that none of the parties is in a comparatively better or worse situation when
presenting the information in the negotiations. This information will be
explored, examined and evaluated by impartial representatives.
Second, all
the parties are represented and therefore, all the voices will be heard and all
the parties will have a vote in the final agreed decision. That means that
although the representatives do not know whom they represent, they still do
know that all the parties are being represented.
Finally, it is
important to make evident that the outcome will be a decision in relation to
the sovereignty over Khemed only. All the representatives know this. Whether
the parties have quantitative and/or qualitative differences amongst them will
not be taken into account by the representatives. For
example, we know Khemed, Syldavia and Borduria have different levels of
development, different means of defence, their populations are different in
size, also their territories, and their capacity to explore and exploit natural
resources, and many other. Any quantitative and/or qualitative difference
amongst the parties have to do with issues that are independent of the
sovereignty conflict or dispute and will not form part of the negotiations.
Having made clear
who may be part of the negotiations (colourable claim), who may represent
Khemed, Syldavia and Borduria, the facts these representatives know and will
not know, the next post will introduce the way in which the representatives
select a rule to allocate the sovereignty over Khemed.
Jorge Emilio
Núñez
05th October 2017
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