Secessionist activity has been increasing in the developing world, in Western liberal
democracies, and especially in the former Communist states of Eastern Europe. This timely
book offers a general explanation for the occurrence of the phenomenon, arising from a
comparative study of numerous historical examples of secession and separatist conflict. The
book develops a comprehensive framework, specifying the elements necessary for a
secession crisis, and discussing the moral issues underpinning it.

This paper presents an analysis of secession based on rational choice premises. From
these premises, secession is seen to be the outcome of a series of collective decisions
made by regional leaders and populations, and by the leaders and populations of host
states. This emphasis on collective decisions serves to differentiate secession from another
process that leads to the formation of political units—the fragmentation of host states The
analysis explains why secession has been such a rare outcome in modern history and …