Eurasian “Resistance” to Internationalization of Sovereignty

The 21st century has witnessed several transformations in international structure. The state-building process in the aftermath of the Iraq Invasion in 2003 was a cornerstone in the transformation of sovereignty as it implied the internationalized state form in the periphery of the capitalist international division of labor. However, the Western agenda of transforming the region and beyond with economic as well as military interventions faced a challenge from the Russia-China axis. These two countries became the focal point of resistance within the capitalist system, forcing Western capitalism to address this challenge. During the last decade, Russia was involved in military conflicts in Eurasian territories, where formerly Western powers had the upper hand. On the other hand, China became a hub for an alternative source of capital to Western institutions such as the IMF and WB, with its highly centralized and condensed financial power. These two countries offered an alternative to the Western type of articulation to the international markets, emphasizing the ‘old’ understanding of sovereignty. This study firstly aims to examine the transformation (thus, internationalization) of sovereignty as an agenda of Western capitalism by looking at Western powers’ policies during and after the Iraq invasion. Then, it will scrutinize the challenge to this transformation by the Eurasian axis with its persistence on the ‘national’ sovereignty of the peripheral countries they are exporting capital and establishing new political and military affairs with. Lastly, the study concludes with the possible prospects of these two rival sovereignty claims and the consequences they evoke.