Indigenous Nations & Modern States: Introduction

Rudolph Rÿser

doi:10.63428/t8t19876

Indigenous Nations & Modern States

Introduction

Rudolph C. Rÿser, PhD

Volume 23, Number 2 (2024) 23 (2): 1-9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.63428/t8t19876

Keywords Colonization, history of international relations, Native diplomats, Isabell Montour, Andrew Montour, American Indian Policy Review Commission, alternative elective bodies, political status of Indigenous communities, Trust Relationships, Martinez Cobo, Bernard Q. Nietschmann, Fourth World Geopolitics, non-European diplomacy, institutions for international relation

Abstract

Originally published in: Rÿser, R. (2012). Introduction, In Indigenous Nations and Modern States: The Political Emergence of Nations Challenging State Power (pp. 1–9), Routledge N.Y.

This article by Rudolph C. Rÿser is the introduction to his book Indigenous Nations and Modern States: The Political Emergence of Nations Challenging State Power. Here, Rÿser explores the premise of the book, its goals, and his inspiration to write it. Rÿser explains how his career as a diplomat promoting Indigneous goals to modern states and his personal heritage rooted in a legacy of Native diplomats informs his book. Over the course of Rÿser's career and work with others in the field he began to question the present and future political status and systems of and between Indigenous bodies and modern states, the "who and what" of Indigneous peoples, and whether alternative elective bodies existed which could further Indigenous goals. This introduction highlights how his Fourth World perspective and these questions inform Indigenous Nations and Modern States, a book which uncovers the evolving politics of Indigneous nations and the diverse forms of Indigenous geopolitical thought and international relations in history and the present day in order to propose the outline of a new general theory of international relations as well as new modalities and institutions for diplomacy between nations and between nations and states in order to affirm the political identity and status of Indigenous nations.