TY - JOUR AU - Solomons, Leonie Marilynne PY - 2009/07/05 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Design for an Assessment of Gaining Access to the International Interoperability Systems in the Bid for Secession JF - Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2009, Brisbane, Australia JA - ISSS VL - 1 IS - 1 SE - DO - UR - https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1218 SP - AB - In sovereign based conflicts where secession is threatened, war plays a significant role in levelling the playing field in the bid for and in Peace Talks negotiations. Whilst each opposing protagonist, would prefer to enter Peace Talk negotiations with the upper hand, the greater likelihood is that it is stalemate conditions or subdued victory that is the atmosphere for meaningful Peace Talks. However, the prelude to such conditions is that usually there is an intensity of atrocities. Indeed the greater the perception of the threat of secession, the greater the intensity of war. The question is – is there another way to level the playing field in the bid for Peace Talk negotiations without the carnage and price of war and terrorism. Having recognised the need for operational viability of the (aspiring) Secessionists State, particularly in the form of needing to participate in what is termed the international interoperability systems, this paper proposes there is an alternative to the intensity of war/terrorism.This paper considers the attractiveness of that alternative. It examines the (aspiring) secessionist’s need for international interoperability, for example the need for an international telephone dialling number, recognition of postal destination, passport, banking system. In turn it considers the way that engages the Parent State in response to prevent such achievement. This brings to light the operational relevance of recognition of new States by the international community and the path of positioning and negotiations that the opposing protagonist can engage in. This being the case, this paper proposes a design for assessing that international positioning by each opposing secessionist. It also proposes that such assessment can be used, like the assessment of war, in the bid for levelling the playing field for internal self-determination Peace Talks where territorial integrity is preserved and equality on substantive matters across the communities is achieved. ER -