Sovereignty as Capacity, Not Ceremony

Sovereignty today should be defined operationally as the state’s material capacity to defend territory, secure critical infrastructure, and ensure autonomous decision‑making (energy, defense, compute), not merely the legal ability to legislate. Rhetorical reassertions of control (e.g., Brexit slogans) can mask an erosion of those capacities when alliance guarantees, industrial bases, and strategic infrastructure are outsourced or fragile. — If policymakers adopt a capacity‑based definition of sovereignty, it will shift debates from symbolic constitutional sovereignty to concrete investments in deterrence, industrial policy, and infrastructure resilience.