From Crimea to Flanders, secessionist movements are breaking out all over. Some lay claim to more legitimacy than others. But they are all testimonies to the enduring grip of historical narratives in which defeats are mythologized and perceived wrongs must be righted. The West’s refusal to recognize the results of a Crimean referendum, much less a declaration of independence, is undermined by the messiness with which Ukraine’s president was shooed from office and the U.S.-Russia rivalry driving this geopolitical crisis. But it is a good illustration of how any one people’s claim to independence is often in the eye of the beholder.
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