Understanding modern sovereignty within global tendencies

The article analyzes the evolution of the meaning of sovereignty and its modern understanding, especially in the context of globalization. The various theoretical concepts of sovereignty as one of the main attributes of the state are considered. A number of outstanding politicians and famous experts in this field have presented different interpretations of sovereignty. They take fundamentally different approaches to its interpretation: some of them proclaim the end of sovereignty, others deny even the fact of its erosion. The purpose of the article is to define the role of a sovereign state in the modern international relations. The ratio of internal and external aspects of sovereignty are also analyzed. For instance, the situation in Tatarstan (Russia) in the 1990s shows the problem of competing internal claims to sovereignty. Two dimensions - external and internal - of such a phenomenon as self-determination and the issue of a balance between the right of self-determination and the right of territorial integrity in the international law are also considered. One more problem, that the authors focus on is the priority of influences, on a sub-regional basis, in defining sovereignty. The Pacific Rim countries such as the USA, Canada and Russia are chosen as the case study. The authors conclude that different influences affect each region's views on sovereignty and the order of these factors may be presented as follows: political ideology; culture, including ethnicity, religion, history; economics; geography; globalization.