European sovereignty legitimated states by domesticating and rationalizing war within borders.

Evidence

To properly assess the efficacy of the colony as a formation of terror, we need to take a detour into the European imaginary itself as it relates to the critical issue of the domestication of war and the creation of a European juridical order (Jus publicum Europaeum). At the basis of this order were two key principles. The first postulated the juridical equality of all states. This equality was notably applied to the right to wage war (the taking of life). The right to war meant two things. On the one hand, to kill or to conclude peace was recognized as one of the preeminent functions of any state. It went hand in hand with the recognition of the fact that no state could make claims to rule outside of its borders. But conversely, the state could recognize no authority above it within its own borders. On the other hand, the state, for its part, undertook to “civilize” the ways of killing and to attribute rational objectives to the very act of killing. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 75

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Jus publicum Europaeum and its principle that state sovereignty equals an exclusive, rationalized right to kill within borders.
• XREF: Connects to Schmitt’s definition of sovereignty as the power to decide the state of exception, named in the same passage. — connects to: War exercises sovereignty through the right to kill. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 7; European states consolidated power through monopolizing violence and administration.; Monopoly of violence within precise borders is distinctive to the modern state — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 155 (+2 more)

Related

• Colonial sovereignty operates outside legal and institutional rules of warfare (similarity 0.81)
• War drives the regular mechanisms of power beneath the law (similarity 0.80)
• War exercises sovereignty through the right to kill. (similarity 0.79)
• Monopoly of violence within precise borders is distinctive to the modern state (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• European states consolidated power through monopolizing violence and administration. #corroborates (0.90)
• Monopoly of violence within precise borders is distinctive to the modern state #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 155
• War drives the regular mechanisms of power beneath the law #corroborates (0.80)
• State-led reform and national wars dominate the formation of modern states #expands (0.75)