Getting a Look into the Black Hole of Unrecognized States

Abstract

Unrecognized States: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Modern International System. By Nina Caspersen . Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. 210 pp., $24.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-745-65342-6). The building blocks of the international system are, for the most part, sovereign states with full recognition by the international community. Yet, when we ask ourselves precisely how many states there are in the world, the answer is not that simple. Do we consider quasi-states and unrecognized states as states that are part of the international system or do we look at them merely as “black holes” that are war-torn and completely incapable of controlling their territory and population? If this would be the case then how come some unrecognized states, such as Taiwan and Northern Cyprus, for example, have been able to function as democracies with a higher standard of living for many years? Nina Caspersen, in Unrecognized States: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Modern International System, investigates the question of whether unrecognized states are indeed considered states and that the only thing they lack is de jure recognition or are they something different. She assesses the connection between internal and external sovereignty and whether it is possible to survive in the international system if a state does not possess external sovereignty. The topic of recognition has not been given much attention in political science literature, even though the issue has far-reaching implications for conflict resolution and democracy. With well-written style, Caspersen uncovers a lot of this gray area and recommends ways to deal with problems in unrecognized states. The main idea of this …