Sovereignty beyond borders

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OPINION

By Peter Yehangane

Humanity began its journey in harmony with each other, with nature and with the cosmos. Man lived within a sacred ecology, and life flourished only when relationships were balanced. People cooperated because survival depended on mutual care; they honoured the land because it sustained them; they looked to the stars because the cosmos gave meaning and rhythm. Existence was understood as an interconnected whole, held together by natural law and shared responsibility.

Across continents, this unity expressed itself through the first great networks of connection. The ancient Silk Road carried not only goods but astronomy, mathematics, stories and philosophies, a proof that progress has always emerged from exchange, not isolation. Later, railways crossed borders, power grids lit entire regions, pipelines fed economies across political divides, aviation routes linked continents, and fibre-optic cables created a digital Silk Road. These networks show a truth older than any state: life is sustained by connection, even when borders divide.

Humanity carries this memory of harmony forward, even as history turned toward rivalries and territorial doctrines.

Technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum networks, climate systems and missions into space are advancing faster than the old political ideas built around borders. Our economies, security and survival are now tightly linked. Yet we still operate within a system created for a world that no longer exists, one divided by lines on a map rather than united by shared responsibility. Technology is blind to the human logic of borders and the monopoly on defining the meaning of life. It flows where it must, not where borders demand.

The real question is not whether borders will remain, but whether sovereignty, the way we organise power, can evolve into something more collaborative and more humane. To imagine this future, we must look back to the wisdom of ancient civilisations, which taught that life works best when it follows the laws of nature: balance, harmony and mutual care.

Across cultures, natural law shaped early human societies. In Africa, Ma’at represented truth and balance, and Ubuntu reminded people that “I am because we are.” China’s Confucian and Daoist teachings emphasised harmony with the Dao. Dharma in India linked duty with a universal moral order. Europe’s Aristotle and the Americas’ Maya and Inca echoed the same principle: true order comes from responsibility, not domination.

But as societies grew richer and more complex, this balance broke down. Surplus created hierarchy; hierarchy produced rivalry; rivalry led to expansion and defence. Borders formed not only on the ground but in the mind. States emerged, controlling territory, shaping identity and even defining the meaning of life.

From the Magna Carta (1215) to Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648), Europe built doctrines that formalised sovereign power. The US’s Monroe Doctrine (1823) extended this thinking, declaring an entire hemisphere off-limits to outside influence. Empires spoke of civilisation but often practised domination—“every empire is a graveyard of forgotten values.”

The two World Wars were global struggles of an imperial system in collapse. After 1945, the Cold War divided the world into two blocs, NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East. Many newly independent nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America found their sovereignty respected only when aligned with one of these powers.

A different vision emerged with the Bandung Conference (1955), and the Non-Aligned Movement was formally launched in Belgrade, 1961. Leaders from the Global South insisted on sovereignty as dignity, independence and a moral stand against domination. The Havana Declaration (1979) expressed this clearly: sovereignty must defend freedom from all forms of imperial control.

The end of the Cold War brought hopes of a “unipolar” world, but globalisation often deepened inequality. By the 2010s, a new multipolar landscape formed: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (2013), the rise of BRICS+ and expanding regional unions. These efforts, though not so perfect, showed that sovereignty can be shared and layered, echoing ancient wisdom that harmony is stronger than domination.

A new chapter in human history began on 4 October 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. As it orbited Earth, humanity’s gaze was drawn beyond the horizon of nations and into the vastness of space. For the first time, the planet appeared whole, without borders, without divisions, its fragile unity revealed against the infinite cosmos. This moment dissolved centuries of geopolitical doctrine, exposing the limits of territorial sovereignty and declaring a truth both ancient and new: humanity’s future is cosmic, and sovereignty cannot remain purely terrestrial.

Space became a domain where no state could claim ownership, challenging the logic of monopoly and control that had long defined political life. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 affirmed this vision, declaring space the “province of all humankind.” Later, the Artemis Accords of the 2020s reinforced the principle that no nation may seize territory beyond Earth. For the first time, international law recognised that some realms must belong to everyone, echoing natural law’s timeless wisdom that life flourishes only through balance, harmony, and shared responsibility.

Sputnik was more than a technological triumph; it was a revelation. It showed that Earth is but one home among many and that rigid political borders lose their absolute authority when measured against the cosmos. The universe calls us to return to harmony with nature, with the planet, and with the wider order of existence. In this cosmic perspective, sovereignty is transformed: not domination over land or people, but custodianship of a shared destiny.

Today, more emerging technologies reveal the limits of border-based thinking.
AI crosses borders instantly.

Neurotechnology has led UNESCO (2025) to recognise mental privacy and cognitive rights.

The climate system, the pandemics ignore sovereignty entirely. Cyber threats, orbital debris and lunar missions require cooperation, not competition.

Technology may be neutral, but it forces us to work together. It exposes the weaknesses of old doctrines and pushes humanity toward shared solutions.

Regions across the world are quietly building new initiatives of cooperation through common markets, shared regulation, collective security and digital and environmental governance.

This does not call for a world government, but for a new understanding: global sovereignty as custodianship, where nations keep their identities but share responsibility for the Earth and the wider cosmos. Ancient philosophies and modern technologies point to the same truth: laws and institutions must align with the laws of nature.

This gives powerful meaning to the idea of cognitive sovereignty to protect the mind in an age of AI and neurotechnology, global sovereignty to recognise humanity as one community sharing one planet and cosmic sovereignty to guide our responsibilities beyond Earth.

The greatest calling of our age is to dissolve the circles of division, both territorial and mental, that confine humanity. The future belongs not to those who cling to borders, but to those who restore balance through wisdom, natural law and shared responsibility. By honouring ancient truths, respecting the limits of nature and embracing the networks of cooperation already emerging, sovereignty evolves beyond domination into custodianship. Cognitive, global and cosmic sovereignty together remind us that the mind, the earth and the universe are realms of belonging, not possession.

The Sovereign Citizen