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The Art of Foreign Policy: Catalonian Independence Vote Representative of Widespread Sentiment

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
People shout 'Independence' as police try to control the area as people attempt to cast their ballot at a polling station in the referendum vote on October 1, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.

Supporters of independence in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region have taken to the streets, blocking roads and calling for a general strike to protest a crackdown by the country's central government.  The regional government has backed the the strike effort, which came after a contested independence referendum.  The Spanish government opposed the vote and police in some areas fought with citizens who were trying to cast ballots.

Catalans' desire to secede from Spain is representative of movements that exist in other parts of Europe, says foreign policy analyst Art Cyr.  Cyr, a professor of political economy and world business at Carthage College, says such independence movements often arise in countries without a strong central government.

Credit Carthage College
Art Cyr teaches political economy and world business at Carthage College.

"This reflects a wider, region-wide - throughout Europe - phenomenon," Cyr says.  "Religion has faded - an important basis for party politics in Europe.  Ideology has faded with post-war prosperity and the end of the Cold War.

"To me, it's kind of understandable and natural, especially in nation-states that do not have a strong tradition of long-term centralization," Cyr says.  "So I think we can expect more bubbling up of regional sentiment."

But Cyr says independence movements - like in Catalonia and in Scotland - come with risks.  "I think it's a highly emotional sentiment," he says.  But places like Scotland, he adds, "would have heavy defense, security, and police expenditures that are currently subsidized by the central [British] government. 

"I think - like a lot of political decisions - it's not a particularly rational sentiment.  I would hope they'll work things out, and it won't turn into a violent armed conflict in Spain."

Arthur I. Cyr is Director of the Clausen Center for World Business and Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha. Previously he was President of the Chicago World Trade Center, the Vice President of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, a faculty member and executive at UCLA, and an executive at the Ford Foundation. His publications include the book After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia (Macmillan and NYU Press).