What are the factors that determine how central governments respond to demands for independence? Secessionist movements are numerous and quite varied in form, but the chief obstacle to their ambitions is the state itself, which can deny independence demands, deploy force if need be, and request that the international community respect its territorial integrity by not recognizing the breakaway region. Age of Secession focuses on this crucial but neglected moment in the life of a secessionist movement. Griffiths offers a novel theory using original data on secessionist movements between 1816...

A novel analysis of secessionist movements, explaining state response, the likelihood of conflict, and the proliferation of states since 1945.