National Secession

How do some national-secessionist campaigns get on the global agenda whereas others do not? Which projects for new nation-states, Philip Roeder asks, give rise to mayhem in the politics of existing states? National secession has been explained by reference to identities, grievances, greed, and opportunities. With the strategic constraints most national-secession campaigns face, the author argues, the essential element is the campaign's ability to coordinate expectations within a population on a common goal—so that independence looks like the only viable option.

Roeder shows how in most well-known national-secession campaigns, this strategy of programmatic coordination has led breakaway leaders to assume the critical task of propagating an authentic and realistic nation-state project. Such campaigns are most likely to draw attention in the capitals of the great powers that control admission to the international community, to bring the campaigns' disputes with their central governments to deadlock, and to engage in protracted, intense struggles to convince the international community that independence is the only viable option.

In National Secession, Roeder focuses on the goals of national-secession campaigns as a key determinant of strategy, operational objectives, and tactics. He shifts the focus in the study of secessionist civil wars from tactics (such as violence) to the larger substantive disputes within which these tactics are chosen, and he analyzes the consequences of programmatic coordination for getting on the global agenda. All of which, he argues, can give rise to intractable disputes and violent conflicts.

Philip Roeder is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. Roeder has published books on Kremlin politics and the failure of the Soviet state, the incomplete post-Soviet transitions to democracy, and national-secession disputes and conflicts around the world. His articles have appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, World Politics, and International Studies Quarterly.

National Secession is a unique book. It provides a novel theoretical approach for understanding nationalist campaigns. Rooted in the work of Vladimir Lenin, it provides a theoretically informed action plan with clear suggestions for the coordination of a sustained nationalist campaign. Anyone interested in nationalism, conflict, or the political processes that leads to these phenomena will enjoy this book.

Roeder... confronts the myth of military victory for national-secessionist movements...

David D. Laitin, Watkins Professor of Political Science, Stanford University:

Inspired by Lenin’s political theory of revolution, Philip Roeder, focusing on the challenge of programmatic coordination, offers an equally compelling political theory of national secession.

Mark R. Beissinger, Henry W. Putnam Professor of Politics, Princeton University:

Roeder's highly original analysis examines conditions that give rise to significant and often protracted campaigns for separatism. As he shows, separatists can win against the odds through persistent efforts aimed at demonstrating the impracticality of the status quo and the viability of sovereign statehood.

Dmitry Gorenburg, Senior Research Scientist and author of Nationalism for the Masses: Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation, Strategic Studies Division, CNA:

In National Secession, Philip G. Roeder has produced a novel argument, backed with a comprehensive set of evidence. Roeder’s central argument serves as an important corrective to the general tendency to over-focus on structural factors in analyzing popular mobilization, and his theoretical contribution greatly advances our understanding of how campaigns for independence develop and are sustained. As a result, National Secession will appeal to scholars in all branches of the social sciences.