For this Module, our class will investigate what criteria are required for a nation-state to exist according to international law. Once we establish this, our class will debate whether or not a state can lose statehood status due to the effects of climate change. To help us determine our perspective on this issue, we will examine the real-world challenges facing the Pacific island nation-state of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas).

Though international organizations play a crucial role in drafting and promoting international public law, other actors, such as individuals, corporations, and non-governmental organizations, also play a role in global affairs. International public law recognizes the part of the state primarily in international law. First codified in Uruguay in 1933, the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (full text here) determines that a state should possess four criteria: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

The Montevideo Convention is recognized as the key document in determining what criteria are required for a state to exist. Since its adoption, no state has ever lost its statehood status due to being in breach of this law. As such, for now, states in the international system that are struggling to meet these four criteria are still able to call themselves "nation-states." The debate we will have during this Module,  however, is under what conditions, if any, could a state lose statehood status. To help us examine this question, below are more details about the Republic of Kiribati, its history as a state, and the troubles it is facing as a result of rising sea levels.

The Republic of Kiribati consists of 21 inhabited islands and 12 atolls (uninhabited hardened coral reefs) located northeast of Australia in the Oceania region. Before the British, the islanders were army migrants from Southeast Asia (around 3000 BCE) and later ethnic Samoans (beginning around the 14th century). In the 19th century, the British conquered the island nation, naming it the Gilberts, and began extracting phosphates (a key ingredient in the modern industrialized agricultural revolution occurring at the time). The British administered the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands (later the state of Tuvalu) together as a colony. However, religious missionaries to the Gilberts brought Catholicism to these islands, while Protestant missionaries settled in the Ellice Islands. As a result, the two island chains viewed each other as ethnically and religiously at odds. During World War II, the Japanese occupied one of the key islands for phosphate, Banaba, interning, killing, and deporting most of its inhabitants. After the war, the British government resettled many of the remaining Banabans on a small island in Fiji (more than 1,000 miles from their home). Though the British claimed the Banabams could not return home to their island due to the devastation caused by the Japanese during the war, the British continued to mine phosphates on the island.

By the mid-1970s, Britain divided the Gilberts and Ellice into distinct colonial holdings. In an unprecedented move, the inhabitants of the Gilberts launched civil actions against the United Kingdom in the British court system. They sued the colonial power, seeking a greater share in the profits of phosphate mining and funding to address the environmental impact of this extractive sector. Phosphorus mining removes vegetation and erodes soil to extract the rock below. It also creates pollutant runoff. With decreasing phosphorus yields and an expensive trust payment instead of future litigation, Britain ultimately acquiesced to independence for the Gilbert Islands. In 1979, the Gilbert Islands became the Republic of Kiribati (Kiribati is the indigenous pronunciation of the name “Gilbert”).

After independence, the government formed a presidential system with a unicameral legislative branch with less than fifty representatives. With few agricultural resources and exhausted phosphate mines, the Republic of Kiribati focuses primarily on fishing and remittance for seafarers. With the increased competition in these two sectors (especially from laborers from Indonesia and the Philippines) over the past few decades, Kiribati must rely more heavily on foreign aid. Today, the United States estimates that nearly one-third of Kiribati's finances are funded through aid from eight entities: the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, the United States, the Asian Development Bank, and Taiwan.10 Beginning in the 1990s, Japan constructed a satellite station in Kiribati. In exchange for financial aid from Taiwan, Kiribati recognizes the Republic of China (i.e., China’s ousted government that now resides on the island of Taiwan). British Petroleum also leases oil rig space in Kiribati’s exclusive maritime economic zone. 

As the global climate continues to warm, the World Bank warns that Kiribati and its more than 100,000 inhabitants will be among the most vulnerable states as many of the islands are only meters above the present sea levels. As waves filled with salt water hit the shores, saltwater salinates any available groundwater and ruins any crops. Further, with more tropical storms and degraded coral reefs, large waves will further erode any habitable land.

In this highly interactive and collaborative course, we will work as teams to address our world's issues by preparing for and running political simulations. Political simulations are active learning approaches that encourage students to inhabit the multitude of actors in the global political system (e.g., states and non-state actors). Within these roles, students will work in groups to understand the challenges facing certain actors, identify motivations and strategic choices, and create possible paths forward. Though simulations take place in the second week of each module, all class periods and assignments build toward these events. Please take a look at the syllabus for a list of the exact dates.

For your purposes, I have for you below (1) a key debate question, (2) roles each student will play in a simulation (on a rotating basis), and (3) a list of the 25 groups that will be participating in this simulation. Your name will appear below once you have chosen/been assigned to your small group on the first day. NOTE: for most modules, you will likely need to conduct outside research to be fully prepared to understand your group's role in the simulation.