A world of thousand independent regions. Transforming the World to Small Countries as ‘Independent Regions’

Abstract

This paper proposes a fundamental socio-spatial alternative for reorganizing our world structure, countries and regions which can help and support the ever-increasing number of refugees and, at the same time, can try to reduce or even eradicate the human-made refugee problem altogether. When the idea of ‘Independent Regions’is put into the context of refugees, it presents itself as a necessary alternative to the current imbalance of few large and dominant countries in contrast to a large number of smaller countries. First, we look at the best that current countries or groups of countries can provide for refugees based on the Geneva Refugee Convention from 1951. Second, we explore an alternative, that is based on fundamental principles of ‘Independent Regions’ with an ideal population size for governing itself, that has the potential to reduce the root problem of refugee creation of big countries vs small counties. Third, we investigate how to transition existing structures of countries to form ‘A World of Independent Regions’ in Europe, United States, Middle East and Northern Africa. We conclude that a world of ‘Independent Regions’ provides a stronger potential to deal with current issues and problems facing the world than the current system.