At the very least, there has to be an absence of violent opposition, including the threat of secession.

Perhaps what comes next will be a fundamental break from the past, a truly modern era of Pax Technologica.

In 1967, the Anguillan people staged a number of demonstrations to demand secession from Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The world needs a decisive break with the past, and that break needs to start now.

Somalia said the principle of national self determination should allow Somalis in northeastern Kenya (and in the southern Ethiopia) to secede, because they were one Somali nation.

Disconnection is the beginning, followed by the belief that one is the only person who knows what is right and good.

In turn, the most radical regional opposition groups threaten secession if the central government blocks their demands for greater self government.

These are peace talks, not a defense treaty, and Syria would not abruptly disengage from its Iranian friends.

After regaining its independence from the Soviet Union, only remnants of the industrial behemoths of the communist era remained.

It was a really wonderful experience, but when I got home, I suddenly felt very disconnected and suddenly shut in and shut out, and I was really surprised by those feelings.

No outside forces should either encourage or discourage secession, and the barriers for recognizing secession should be set high.

His long term policy seems clear to place his Serb entity, Republika Srpska, in a position to secede if the opportunity arises.

So, far from being a harbinger of the break up of Britain, devolution has brought fresh vitality to national life outside London.

Indeed, if not convincingly deterred by the international community, it is extremely difficult to believe that Bashir would let the South secede without a fight.

It rests on what the people concerned believe to be real. At the very least, there has to be an absence of violent opposition, including the threat of secession.

Although nominally governed by ethnic federalism, where this threatened secession, as in Oromia or the Ogaden, Meles was quick to ignore the constitutional set up.

And the security fence, which was to allow for unilateral separation, may hold back suicide bombers but not modern missiles of the kind currently employed by Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the imperatives created by the unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza in mid 2005 have directed attention to the need to rapidly address new realities on the ground.

The government accuses the opposition of advocating the secession of hydrocarbon rich territories, threatening them with repression. In turn, the most radical regional opposition groups threaten secession if the central government blocks their demands for greater self government.

Indian GDP grew at heady rates of 8 10 per year between 2004 and 2007, a period that seemed to herald a decisive break from the anemic Hindu rate of growth.

As pointed out above, the rights of persons belonging to minorities are different from the rights of peoples to self determination, and minority rights cannot serve as a basis for claims of secession or dismemberment of a State.

This changed with the advent of floating exchange rates in the early 1970 s, which allowed more stability conscious countries, such as Germany, to decouple from a US monetary policy that they considered too inflationary.

Why should nationality be defined by language or ethnicity? If Tibetans should be allowed to break away from China, why not the Welsh from Britain, the Basques from Spain, the Kurds from Turkey, or the Kashmiris from India?

It is in this context that Putin has been able to use Western pressure as a tool to regain the support of many Russians, who only a few years ago would have felt detached from, if not alienated by, his government. Presented with a real or imagined threat to the fatherland, the average Russian supports the country s leaders.

So, far from being a harbinger of the break up of Britain, devolution has brought fresh vitality to national life outside London. The new confidence in Edinburgh, which is experiencing an economic boom, is self evident.

Even in Europe, where Catalonia and the Basque region push for secession from Spain, some in Flanders want an end to Belgium, and Scotland s ruling Scottish National Party wants eventually to break away from Britain, support for Kosovo s independence is far from universal.

Moreover, according to international law, the right of peoples to self determination must be achieved peacefully. Furthermore, in accordance with the principle of territorial integrity, the right to self determination did not imply the unilateral right of secession and must not lead to the disintegration of sovereign and independent States.

No outside forces should either encourage or discourage secession, and the barriers for recognizing secession should be set high. Secession is in itself neither good nor bad like divorce, it may make people more or less content.