a catalog of dissolution

Political Dissolution

The unmaking of polities: secessions, federation collapses, failed states, and decolonization reversals.

• The Secession of South SudanThe most recent successful secession and what followed.
• Federation CollapseWhen federations come apart: the centrifugal forces that undo unions of states.
• Failed StatesStates that have dissolved from within, losing the monopoly on violence that defines them.
• Decolonization ReversalsWhen empires dissolve, and what comes after — including the empires that reformed under new names.
• Katanga SecessionFor thirty months a mining concession wore the costume of a state, and the world learned how little difference the costume makes