<p><span class="p-body"><span class="p-body-large"><span class="p-body-large-bold">Maahi Gupta</span><br />
MS in Global Affairs</span></span></p>
<p><span class="p-body"><b>Project Name: </b>Disciplining God: The Meaning of Sovereignty</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body"><b>Project Description:<br />
</b>The contemporary understanding of sovereignty, institutionalized through the United Nations and grounded in the Westphalian model, treats sovereignty as an intrinsic, territorially bounded property of the state. This thesis argues that such a definition is not only incomplete but also incapable of describing how sovereignty actually operates. Drawing on Samuel von Pufendorf and on the critical tradition running through Hannah Arendt, Bruno Latour, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and R. B. J. Walker, this thesis shows that the Westphalian model hides the relational and continuous processes through which sovereignty is produced.</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body">I propose a new definition. It shifts sovereignty from a static property to a relational process, constituted through networks of recognition and contestation rather than inherent state attributes. Second, it expands the category of sovereign actors beyond the territorial state to include non-state organizing bodies such as technology corporations, armed groups, and transnational institutions. Third, it emphasizes the symbolic dimension of sovereignty through the governance of myth, narrative, and collective identity and as structurally inseparable from the control of material conditions.</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body"><b>Capstone Course Name: </b>GLOB1-GC3900</span></p>