Is there a right to secede? Many Chechens, Acehnese, Montenegrins, to name but a few, evidently believe so, and it is not hard to see why. Governments exist to serve their peoples, not vice versa, so if a group of people wish to be governed in a unit different from the one presented to them by history, why should they not arrange their affairs according to their wishes? This is simply the principle of self-determination. Abe Lincoln disagreed with it, but times have moved on. Modern, sophisticated states are no longer neurotically attached to bits of territory. If Norway wants to leave Sweden (1905), Ireland to leave the United Kingdom (1921), 14 republics to leave a Russian-dominated Soviet Union (1991), Slovakia to leave Czechoslovakia (1993) or Eritrea to leave Ethiopia (1993), they can do so without a civil war. Good luck to them.
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