From a legal perspective, the contemporary notion of state - TopicsExpress

From a legal perspective, the contemporary notion of state sovereignty has four attributes: defined territory; distinct population; authority over territory and population; and recognition of such authority. Should the TTP not claim North Waziristan as the Emirate of TTP? After all it enjoys independent and absolute authority over a distinct territory and population. There might not be international recognition of the TTP’s sovereignty yet, but doesn’t the state of Pakistan offer de facto acknowledgement through its conduct? Wouldn’t formally declaring North Waziristan the Emirate of TTP be advantageous? Once TTP has its own state, we will know for sure that the war consuming the soldiers and citizens of Pakistan is our own war, notwithstanding how it started. Each time the TTP attacks a mosque, a funeral, a school, we can file a complaint with the UN building public opinion that the Emirate of TTP is a rogue state that attacks unarmed civilians in other sovereign states and shows no respect for human rights. Each time it attacks a naval or air base, the GHQ or ISI offices, we can take it to the Security Council for illegal use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of our sovereign state and ask the international community to protect us from the next-door savages. Given that neither our politicians nor our generals have developed a narrative against the TTP, let’s formally give them the state that they already run and let the media develop the required narrative and drum up hate against them.