Alaskan separatism hits the mainstream
Joe Raedle/Getty Images Obscure independence movements are something of an interest of mine, so naturally I’m fascinated to learn that vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was once a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. In addition to a fairly standard right-libertarian platform, the AKIP favors a referendum on whether Alaska should remain a part of the ...
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Obscure independence movements are something of an interest of mine, so naturally I'm fascinated to learn that vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was once a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. In addition to a fairly standard right-libertarian platform, the AKIP favors a referendum on whether Alaska should remain a part of the United States.
AKIP members apparently hold differing views on the statehood question and it's not clear if Palin was ever in favor of full Alaskan independence. But from her one-time membership and her friendly welcoming address to an AKIP conference this year, we can probably infer that she at least considers the party's message--"Alaska first. Alaska always"--within the mainstream of political discourse. This could be a problem for voters in the lower 48, where separatist movements are considered fringe curios. (Somehow I doubt a politician with ties to the Second Vermont Republic would have gotten this far.)
Obscure independence movements are something of an interest of mine, so naturally I’m fascinated to learn that vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was once a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. In addition to a fairly standard right-libertarian platform, the AKIP favors a referendum on whether Alaska should remain a part of the United States.
AKIP members apparently hold differing views on the statehood question and it’s not clear if Palin was ever in favor of full Alaskan independence. But from her one-time membership and her friendly welcoming address to an AKIP conference this year, we can probably infer that she at least considers the party’s message–“Alaska first. Alaska always”–within the mainstream of political discourse. This could be a problem for voters in the lower 48, where separatist movements are considered fringe curios. (Somehow I doubt a politician with ties to the Second Vermont Republic would have gotten this far.)
It might also rub people the wrong way to have someone with alleged secessionist sympathies as the second-in-command of the federal government. In world politics this is hardly unheard of. Italy’s far-right Northern League, nominally a Northern Italian separatist party, controls a number of key positions in Silvio Berlusconi’s cabinet and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is a member of the nationalist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Somehow I don’t think the McCain campaign will be bringing up those examples though.
Update: Robert Farley speculates: “This is hardly the first time this summer that a political leader in a former Russian territory has staked out a fringe secessionist position; could the new-found prominence of the Alaska Independence Party portend a South Ossetia style invasion and annexation?”
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
More from Foreign Policy


Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.


So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.


Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.


Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.