Realpolitik lessons amid self-determination ideals

LET us imagine creating an Intelligent Agent (IA) which we feed all available information about the concept of self-determination that stipulates every group of people has the right to freely choose their sovereignty and political status. It would include the histories of all the national movements, those who achieved their goals and those who did not.

The IA will then be asked to decide whether two national groups seeking independence may legitimately claim the right to self-determination. And more important, whether it will win some form of political autonomy that may include statehood anytime soon. We will call it the National Self Determination Guru (NSDG).

First there are 4.8 million Catalans with their own language and history, who reside in Catalonia, a region in the north-east of Spain. It became part of the Kingdom of Spain, which has existed in its current configuration since 1492, and now comprises 16 per cent of its population.