I want to break free: A practical guide to making a new country

By Matt Qvortrup

Are you fed up with the divided and unequal society or suffocating laws and regulations of the country where you live? Ever dreamed of starting your own country or just want to understand how that happens? In this refreshing new book, Matt Qvortrup provides a step-by-step guide to forming an independent country, from organising a referendum and winning it, to receiving official international recognition, establishing a currency and even entering the Eurovision song contest.

The book delves into the legal, economic and political problems of creating new states, using historical examples and anecdotes from all over the world to illustrate the obstacles to these campaigns. Qvortrup recounts his globetrotting experiences as an expert consultant on referendums to give a no-nonsense explanation of the many hurdles and barriers, as well as the opportunities for those who want to break free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Release date: Nov 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781526166043

Matt Qvortrup

Professor Matt Qvortrup is Chair of Politics at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and an adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Book preview

I want to break free

‘Matt Qvortrup’s concise book provides an expert guide to the practical issues of making a country formally independent, self-governing and part of the community of democratic nation-states. Myths are challenged, and historic and contemporary examples drawn from, which are relevant to how we make sense of independence in the age of interindependence. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in self-government in Scotland, Catalonia and elsewhere.’

Gerry Hassan, Professor of Social Change,Glasgow Caledonian University and author of Scotland Rising: The Case for Independence

‘I Want to Break Free is the unapologetic book of political independence movements, by an advisor who has both global, ground-level political experience and encyclopaedic historic knowledge. Would-be states need this book as much as existing states in danger of runaway nations. If you are neither of these, you will simply find this book immeasurably informative and entertaining.’

Dahlia Scheindlin, PhD., international political consultant and foreign affairs analyst

I want to break free

A practical guide to making a new country

Matt Qvortrup

Manchester University Press

Copyright © Matt Qvortrup 2022

The right of Matt Qvortrup to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by Manchester University Press

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL

www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 5261 6605 0 paperback

First published 2022

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK

Contents

List of figures

List of tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1A brief history of self-determination and the making of new states

2Start me up: How to establish a movement and win support

3What’s law got to do with it? The legal side of creating a new state

4The power and the passion: The international politics of creating a new state

5Constitution building: Rebuilding the ship at sea

6Shake your money maker: The economics of becoming a new country

Conclusions: Bringing it all back home

Notes

Index

Figures

1.1Growth of independent countries 1900–2020

2.1Eurovision Song Contest

2.2Timeline for establishing a movement for independence

3.1Becoming a member of the United Nations

4.1Timeline for winning recognition

5.1Actors and processes in constitutional reform processes 1787–2021

Tables

1.1New states 1944–1969

2.1Successful independence referendums 1980–2019

6.1Major new departments or capabilities needed in an independent state

6.2Some economic consequences – the two options

Preface

Follow me!

The bulky, 6’5" American was not talkative. He was wearing a sport jacket, loose chinos, and a tie, despite the sweltering heat of the African night. His facial expression gave nothing away as he guided me to the SUV outside Khartoum International Airport. He stopped before opening the door, gazed around, squinted slightly, and then gestured that I should get in.

Confirmed, he said in a baritone voice. Just picked him up.

Are you talking to me? I asked.

He looked at me in the rear mirror and raised his enormous hand to signal that he was on the phone.

Yes, got it. The Embassy, not Gaddafi’s Egg. I’m on my way! He looked at me in the way bodyguards do in movies. (I later learned that Gaddafi’s Egg was a spheroid-shaped hotel by the confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, built and owned by the Libyan dictator.) There has been a situation, he continued, so we are taking you to the embassy. Our Embassy! The General is here.

I remained calm as we drove through the Sudanese capital. It was 11 p.m., and I had arrived for a meeting to negotiate the establishment of a new state, to be named South Sudan.

As in so many other cases, the parent state – that is, the government in Khartoum – was not happy that a part of its territory was about to break free, but they had signed up to a vote on independence, and the rebels in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement were not going to renege on the deal. Especially as they had support from the United States and the United Kingdom governments.

But now (it was six years after a peace agreement in 2003), President Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator, was trying to wriggle out of the compact through delaying tactics and crafty legal loopholes. And this is where I came in.

Two months earlier, I had received a phone call as I was tracking around Thorpe Park – an amusement park west of London – with my children.

The woman at the other end of the line did not waste any time on introduction and got straight to the point.

State says, you helped them in Cyprus. This time it’s South Sudan, she said, in an accent that resembled Miss Moneypenny’s in the James Bond movies.

State? I said.

Yes, the US Department of State. You have worked with them before, in Cyprus.

Well, I am on holiday, and I am not an expert in Africa, I said in a nonchalant sort of way. But the lady at the other end of the line was not up for games. She was in a hurry, and apparently, I didn’t have a choice.

The University says it’s okay; we have spoken to them. You know the drill. Yes, we know that you are going on holiday in China.

The woman paused, for a slight moment, and I remembered that I had not told the university that I was going on a trip to China.

I was slightly disturbed that they knew more about me than even close members of my family. It was not a convenient time. I was awakened from my brief reverie by the woman.

Professor, are you still there?

Eh, yes.

Right, so we have checked, and we can get you to Beijing from Khartoum. You will fly via Dubai. It was not a hypothetical; not a question of if I was going to Sudan.

Four days later I arrived in Juba – the capital of South Sudan – en route from Ethiopia. For safety reasons, as I was told.

And now, I was back for a second time. The task now was to help our friends in the North. (In this line of work, friends is always a euphemism for opponents). The Islamicist-inclined government in Khartoum had hosted a certain Osama Bin-Laden, and they had been given an offer they couldn’t refuse – play ball or else. And this meant that they had to give up the disputed land in the South.

It was not the first time I had been called upon to get involved in such a situation. I suppose I had the credentials. Since I was a graduate student, I had been helping, counselling, and advising people who were interested in creating new states. I had a track record. Albeit a fairly specific one. That was certainly what General Scott Gration believed, and this is the reason you are holding this book in your hands. Gration – always known as the General – was a bulky soldier who had grown up in Africa as the son of Protestant missionaries. He had made it to West Point and served with distinction in several wars before he was tapped by Barack Obama to become African Envoy.

Like the bodyguard, the General kept conversation to a minimum. But this evening, he was more talkative than normal. As I arrived at the Embassy, I was asked to give a briefing on the legal situation. The General seemed pleased for a change, I might add. Though that did not mean he would engage in small talk.

Mr Expert. (He couldn’t pronounce my surname, and I was always addressed like this!). What we need to do is to create a new state. This is project management. What is required is a plan complete with Gantt charts and all that, he said. Then he slightly raised his eyebrows and got up. We have work to do. We fly to Juba at 05:00 tomorrow morning.

I couldn’t sleep and I began to write the presentation, much of which can be found in this book.

So, alongside my job as an academic, I have advised and briefed politicians, officials, and movements from Papua New Guinea to Punjab, from South Sudan to Scotland, from Taiwan to Timor-Leste on how to become an independent country – and occasionally on how to avoid it.

This book is a practical guide. The aim is, ultimately, for you to be able to issue your own passports – and for other people to recognise these. Once you can do this, you have a state.

This book will not be to everyone’s liking. Clearly some see the creation of new states as unethical. President Abraham Lincoln took this view. He rejected [the] discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any case, [who] break up their Government and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. Immediately after, the American Civil War began.¹

Conversely, others do not find secession and the creation of a new state problematic at all. Whether it is moral or not, to create a new state is a value judgement. The creation of some new states has led to bloodshed and even spiralled out of control. Bosnia in the 1990s comes to mind. But few people (apart from some die-hard Serbian nationalists) believe it was wrong to create that Balkan state. Further, I have yet to come across anyone who finds it immoral that Iceland, Norway, and Finland – some of the most prosperous countries in the world – became independent within the last hundred and twenty years.

This book makes no claims in either direction. Certainly, there have been many secessions and many attempts at creating new states. (The overall number of independent countries has almost quadrupled in the last century.) Of course, that does not make it morally right, but nor does it make it wrong.

By writing a book like this, you are – as a worst-case scenario – likely to be associated with fanatics and those who seek to create new states by any means necessary, including violence. But you are – as a best-case scenario – perhaps equally likely to be associated with liberators and those who seek to throw off the yoke of oppression. Either is possible. The work of any political writer is doomed to be used by both friends and enemies. The distinguished American philosopher who wrote a book about Secession did not want to suffer either of these fates. He seemingly sought to dissociate himself from the battle by noting that what I offer here is no do-it-yourself political divorce kit.² Well, it is good to distinguish yourself from the competition, so this book is unashamedly a DIY guide to creating a country. It is not a book primarily written for political scientists, lawyers, and such like, but rather a book for those who want to follow George Washington, Simón Bolívar, and Hồ Chí Minh and create new nation-states. Creating a new country is making history in practice. And understanding how history is made, and the considerations that go into making it a success, is something that fascinates many, even if they do not personally contemplate creating a new country.

To write books for practical politicians, of course, is nothing new. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, many advisors (including famous men like Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas Aquinas, if you care for them) wrote what was known as specula principum – or mirrors for princes – which basically provided guidance for practical politicians and would-be rulers.

One of these, a short – and controversial – book on how to create a new state, included the following note to the reader. The writer, by the way, was named Niccolò Machiavelli, and the book The Prince:

[This book is written] to offer you the opportunity of understanding in the shortest time all that I have learnt in so many years, and with so many troubles and dangers; which work I have not embellished with swelling or magnificent words, nor stuffed with rounded periods, nor with any extrinsic allurements or adornments whatever, with which so many are accustomed to embellish their works; for I have wished either that no honour should be given it, or else that the truth of the matter and the weightiness of the theme shall make it acceptable.³

This present book – like The Prince – is written for those who want to create their own state. So, if you are reading this book with the aim of setting up your own independent country, you have come to the right place.

Like Niccolò Machiavelli, this author too has spent decades talking to and observing politicians who want to create new states – and some who want to prevent this. So, this book too will seek (hopefully), without any extrinsic allurements or adornments whatever, to present a factual account of how you succeed in building a new state. In this process, the book will occasionally be blunt and outline how you may need to take bold and perhaps drastic steps to succeed in this endeavour. In any case, this book is based on the evidence from those who have succeeded in creating new states: the good, the bad, and even the ridiculous.

If you decide that creating a new state is not for you, then you may read this book as a kind of insight into the minds of those who want to be fathers or mothers of a new nation. It is okay just to be curious and to understand how people think.

If you find it immoral to create a new state, then you might find this book even more useful. This short volume will allow you to look over the shoulder of your adversaries when they write their notes and to look into their minds as they contemplate their next move. In this