National Minorities and the European Nation-States System [Hardcover]

The collapse of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union has resulted in a proliferation of discontented national minorities who have emerged as a major focus of international relations in post-Cold War Europe. Examining these issues against the backdrop of relevant treaties, diplomatic negotiations, and international practices, Jennifer Jackson Preece's powerful new study presents the definitive assessment of the fate of national minorities in the European states system.

Part I: National Minorities in Conceptual Perspective
1. Introduction
2. What is a National Minority?
3. Why are National Minorities a Subject of European International Relations?
Part II: National Minorities in Historical Perspective
4. Minority Rights from Westphalia to Berlin (1648-1878)
5. The League of Nations System of Minority Guarantees (1919-1939)
6. National Minority Questions and the Cold War Human Rights Regime (1945-1989)
Part III: National Minorities in Contemporary Perspective
7. National Minority Rights Provisions (1990-1995)
8. National Minority Rights Enforcement Mechanisms (1990-1995)
9. Conclusion

Jennifer Jackson Preece is a Lecturer on Nationalism in Europe at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for doctoral studies at Oxford University. Her doctoral dissertation, on which this publication is based, was awarded the Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Thesis Prize (for the best dissertation on human rights) by Oxford University in 1997.