A RIGHT IN RESERVE

In 1914, there was no legally valid right of self-determination as recognized in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Yet it was not a chimera. From a legal point of view, one could not invoke such a right. But those who nevertheless did invoke it roused hopes and expectations, appealed to a concrete prior understanding, and were quickly understood by those who were interested. And such an interest was had by all who were unsatisfied with the existing international territorial distribution, whether this dissatisfaction was with the intercontinental distribution as the result of colonial subjugation or with the continental distribution through territorial conflicts between as a rule neighboring states and secession or unification movements.

The invocation of a postulated right of self-determination took one of two forms. It could be defensive, justifying the existing distribution of territorial possessions as the product of the wishes of those affected. Or it could be offensive, challenging in one way or another the status quo, whether in the form of territorial claims of one state against another, or in the form of movements for independence, secession, or unification by internal forces that sought to weaken an adversary or simply resulted in such.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, the demand for self-determination in concrete cases, and above and beyond that for a right of self-determination of peoples in general, was already familiar, at least in Europe. The demand was advanced and discussed above all by the labor movement. It was certain that for the time being, such a right would not exclusively determine international relations, solely due to the fact that a war, and a classic European war of nations at that, was being waged. This meant that in the end the balance of power was decisive. For it to be otherwise, the right of self-determination, and with it at least fictitious domination-free international relations, would have had to take the place of war. Instead, the issue was only whether the right of self-determination would play a role at all in the war, as the means to the advancement of the interests of one or both parties.