Two-state theory
Two-state theory is a foreign policy term about international law and especially the diplomatic relations between two states .
Germany
While the Federal Republic of Germany has assumed since its foundation to be the sole representative of German interests ( claim to sole representation ), the German Democratic Republic (GDR), largely influenced by Nikita Khrushchev , developed a two-state theory.
According to the two-state theory, which has been advocated by the Soviet Union since around 1955 , two sovereign German states emerged on the territory of the German Reich after the Second World War . As confirmation of this theory, Khrushchev pointed out that the foreign ministers of both countries had attended the Geneva summit in 1955 . Indeed, participation in this international conference meant a significant upgrade for the GDR.
A little later after the conference, on July 26, 1955, Khrushchev finally announced his theory publicly in East Berlin . A prerequisite for German reunification would initially be a rapprochement between the two German states and beyond that only the issue of the German population . Furthermore, the "socialist achievements" of the GDR would have to be preserved. An early reunification through free elections was therefore no longer possible in the opinion of the Western powers .
As early as March 25, 1954, the GDR was granted sovereignty (at least formally) by a declaration by the Soviet government. Even if the Federal Republic of Germany, for fundamental ideological reasons and because of its ties to the West, especially to the USA as the leading and protecting power , formally adhered to the claim to sole representation, the GDR was in fact accepted as the second German state at the latest since the 1960s. This factual recognition was later consolidated when the GDR was formally recognized diplomatically by more and more states during the struggle for spheres of influence in the Cold War .
The two-state theory represented a turning point in Soviet policy is: So far, the Soviet Union had tried, in particular by a rather vague reunification offer of Stalin Note , a Western integration to prevent. When the Paris Treaties came into force , the Federal Republic was integrated into the West. Because of this, the Soviet Union changed its policy on Germany and assumed the division of Germany . This conviction shaped the way the USSR negotiated at the Geneva summit conference in July 1955.
consequences
At the beginning of the 1970s, Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt began a policy of rapprochement and normalization in the relations between the two German states, which was continued with varying degrees of intensity by all subsequent federal governments (→ New Ostpolitik ). One expression of this was the admission of both German states to the UN on September 18, 1973 . With this, the GDR was confirmed internationally as a subject of international law , since any other policy would have ignored reality - from the perspective of the Federal Republic, however, it remained only a part of Germany and was not recognized under international law , but only under constitutional law. The GDR had a seat and vote in the most important international and UN organizations and was even a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council . Any independent political action by the Federal Republic within the meaning of the claim to sole representation, which would have gone beyond the purely formal non-recognition and the usual bureaucratic " harassment " in this context , could have triggered international conflicts between the superpowers USSR and the USA, including their allies affiliated with them prevented if possible by the western allies.
Only with the demonstrative distancing the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev of the Stalinist- dominated SED -Führung under Erich Honecker , the East German government came under increasing pressure in the late 1980s and the consequent reduction in the economic, military and political support. The lack of raw material deliveries and high foreign debts led to an exacerbation of supply bottlenecks and increasing unrest among the population. When in 1989 tens of thousands fled to the West via the West German embassies in the “ brother states ” of the GDR and finally across the Hungarian-Austrian border ( Hungary had opened the borders to GDR citizens who wanted to leave), the pressure to reform the civil rights movement grew from within at the end of 1989. Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl , who shortly before had received Honecker with all diplomatic honors ( Erich Honecker's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987 ) and thus bestowed his greatest triumph, the official recognition as head of government or state head of a sovereign state, confirmed his position according to which he never abandoned Germany's statehood. After German reunification , Kohl became the first all-German Chancellor after the Second World War in 1990 .
The two-state theory was a thing of the past. It was not so much the expression of the will of a sovereign people or part of the population as the result of the war lost by Germany and the resulting influence of the two superpowers .
China and Taiwan
There is also the two-state theory (also known as the two-China theory ) with regard to Sino - Taiwanese relations . It was first coined in 1999 by outgoing President Lee Teng-hui in an interview with Deutsche Welle , and in 2000, when the Kuomintang government in Taiwan was voted out of office, it was officially assumed that two states were also officially involved.
In contrast to the one-China policy , which continues to be advocated by the CPC, the two-state theory developed in Taiwan, which provides that mainland China and national China establish normal bilateral relations among sovereign states. The relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR, two sovereign states that together formed one Germany, served as a model for this theory. The People's Republic of China responded to this idea by announcing that it possessed the technology to build neutron bombs (1999), and in 2005 by passing the anti-secession law legitimizing a military strike against Taiwan should it break away from one-China -Avoid principle.
The legal status of Taiwan , however, remains controversial.
India and Pakistan
The Indian subcontinent (including what is now India , Pakistan and Bangladesh ) was under British rule for centuries, officially known as British India from 1858 to 1947 .
In 1885 the Indian National Congress was founded, which advocated the independence of India. Because of the growing influence of the Hindus in the INC, the rival Muslim League was founded in 1906 . The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League jointly drafted a declaration in 1916 calling for Indian independence ( Lucknow Pact ). This was answered by the British government in August 1917 with a political declaration of intent to allow India a gradual transition to self-government.
Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi , there was non-violent resistance to British rule in the interwar period. Gandhi tried to achieve political unity between Hindus and Muslims.
In negotiations, Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi finally won the country's independence after 1945. British India gained independence in August 1947.
The theory (mainly represented by the Muslim League), according to which Hindus and Muslims form two different nations , was called the “ two-nation theory ” .
Following this theory, British India was not granted independence as a country; rather, it was divided (see also Mountbatten Plan ) into a predominantly Muslim state (Pakistan including today's independent Bangladesh) and a predominantly Hindu state (today's India).
Footnotes
- ↑ Rainer A. Roth, Walter Seifert (Ed.), The Second German Democracy , Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 1990, p. 101.
- ↑ The GDR was in the sense of international law - regardless of its recognition under international law by the Federal Republic of Germany (cf. BVerfGE 36, 1 [22]) - a state and as such a subject of international law. Therefore, in relation to the GDR, the general rules of international law within the meaning of Art. 25 GG can be used (cf. BVerfGE 36, 1 [23 f.]; 92, 277 [320]). These are primarily to be understood as universally applicable customary international law , supplemented by recognized general legal principles (cf. BVerfGE 15, 25 [32 f., 34 f.]; 16, 27 [33]; 23, 288 [317]). The emergence of universal customary international law does not require that all states, without exception, have expressly consented to a set of international law or by implied action. However, it must be based on a general, established practice of numerous states, which is based on the legal conviction that this behavior is lawful (cf. BVerfGE 92, 277 [320]).
- ^ Deutsche Welle: One China, Two States
- ↑ China threatens the neutron bomb , Die Welt of July 16, 1999.
literature
- Berber: Textbook of Völkerrechts , Volume I / 1, 2nd ed., 1975, p. 275.
- Ipsen: Völkerrecht , 3rd edition, 1990, pp. 344/345.