The Battles over Beginnings

> And if some do claim to establish a new political order, who gets to decide which individuals are included among ‘the people’ and which are not? Who decides what territory is rightfully theirs for establishing government?

A possibly apocryphal tale of Alexander on his deathbed concerns someone from his entourage who (perhaps hoping to avoid the wars which did indeed follow) asked who would succeed him. Alexander's blunt answer: the strongest.