Membership Has Its Privileges: The Changing Benefits of Statehood

Fazal, Tanisha M.; Griffiths, Ryan D.

doi:10.1111/misr.12099

Cited by 47 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Nonrecognition reduces de facto states' long-term viability as it prevents them from enjoying key benefits of statehood (Coggins 2011, 448). Membership in the club of recognized states confers not only legal privileges but also more tangible gains such as access to international trade, investment, loans, and arms purchases that enable countries to boost their military wherewithal (Fazal and Griffiths 2014). A country's decision to recognize (or withdraw recognition from) a de facto state is rarely based on legal principles, but is primarily driven by strategic objectives.…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

De Facto States: Survival and Disappearance (1945–2011)

Florea

2017

International Studies Quarterly

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De facto states-polities, such as Abkhazia (Georgia) or the Donetsk People's Republic (Ukraine), that appropriate many trappings of statehood without securing the status of full states-have been a constant presence in the postwar international order. Some de facto states, such as Northern Cyprus, survive for a long period of time. Others, including Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, are forcefully reintegrated into their parent states. Still others, such as Aceh in Indonesia, disappear as a result of peacemaking. A few, such as Eritrea, successfully transition to full statehood. What explains these very different outcomes? I argue that four factors account for much of this variation: the extent of military assistance that separatists receive from outside actors, the governance activities conducted by separatist insurgents, the fragmentation of the rebel movement, and the influence of government veto players. My analysis relies on an original dataset that includes all breakaway enclaves from 1945 to 2011. The findings enhance our understanding of separatist institutional outcomes, rebel governance, and of the conditions that sustain nonstate territorial actors. * Author's note: I am grateful to Karen Rasler, William R. Thompson, Robert Urbatsch, three anonymous reviewers, and the ISQ editors for their comments and suggestions. Supplementary materials, including the dataset, codebook, and replication files, are available on the ISQ website.

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Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

De Facto States: Survival and Disappearance (1945–2011)

Florea

2017

International Studies Quarterly

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“…By contrast, a global scenario that is hostile to maximalist demands for self‐determination and favours minority rights, shared sovereignty, and federal solutions as instruments of conflict resolution might reduce the domestic support for a unilateral declaration of independence and incentivise secessionists to moderate their political strategy. As Fazal and Griffiths remark, “these groups are so eager for recognition, they may be especially likely to respond to the suggestions of the international community” (Fazal & Griffiths, , p. 110). Regardless of the situation, international players are constantly taking sides, either when they remain silent and support the status quo or when they express their preferences for state dissolution.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those that do not get diplomatic recognition dwell in an ambiguous situation where informal economic exchanges tend to predominate” (Saideman, , p. 267). Especially for small states, access to international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), can be crucial to their economic viability (Fazal & Griffiths, ).…”

Section: International Recognition and Domestic Support For Secessionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does international recognition matter? Support for unilateral secession in Catalonia and Scotland

Muro

Vidal

Vlaskamp

2019

Nations and Nationalism

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How much do the prospects of international recognition of a possible new state affect the domestic support for secession? To answer this research question, we adopted a most similar systems design and conducted a Web‐based survey experiment in Catalonia and Scotland. Respondents were presented with plausible scenarios regarding the international recognition of a hypothetical independent state by other countries and were subsequently asked whether they would support a unilateral declaration of independence. The results show that the prospects of international recognition as a sovereign and independent state influence the degree of support for a unilateral declaration of independence in both cases. This effect was moderated by the intensity of nationalist sentiment and the motivations for independence. Respondents with more outspoken nationalist sentiments were only marginally influenced by these scenarios or treatments. Moreover, participants whose preferences towards secession were driven by ethno‐political motivations were less influenced by international factors than those who wanted an independent state for economic or political reasons.

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“…Perhaps the most interesting systemic argument yet advanced comes from Fazal and Griffiths (2014). They find that the incidence of secession is significantly higher after 1945 than before it.…”

Section: Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Twenty Years of de facto State Studies: Progress, Problems, and Prospects

Pegg¹

2017

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics

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It has been almost 20 years since the publication of International Society and the De Facto State by Scott Pegg in 1998, the first book-length substantive theoretical attempt to investigate the phenomenon of de facto states—secessionist entities that control territory, provide governance, receive popular support, persist over time, and seek widespread recognition of their proclaimed sovereignty and yet fail to receive it. Even though most de facto states are relatively small and fragile actors, in the intervening years the study of de facto or contested or unrecognized statehood has expanded dramatically. The de facto state literature has contributed significantly to the growing recognition that the international system is far more variegated than is commonly perceived. An initial focus on the external relations of de facto states has increasingly given way to a newer focus on their internal dynamics and domestic state-building processes and on how a lack of sovereign recognition conditions but does not prohibit their democratic, institutional, and political development. Perhaps most notably, there has been an explosion in detailed empirical research based on original data, which has greatly enriched our understanding of these entities. Alas, the subfield of de facto state studies is also characterized by recurrent problems. There has been an extensive proliferation of different terms used to describe these entities, and much fighting has erupted over precise definitions, resulting in limited scholarly progress. Fundamentally, there remains a continued failure to reach agreement on the number of these entities that exist or have existed since 1945. The nuanced and empirically rich academic literature has also largely failed to advance journalists or policymakers’ understanding of de facto states. Yet, the prospects for de facto state studies remain bright. More diverse comparative work, renewed attention to how engagement without recognition might facilitate the participation of unrecognized entities in international politics, a renewed focus on parent state strategies, and increased attention to de facto states and conflict resolution are areas deserving of greater scholarly attention.

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Membership Has Its Privileges: The Changing Benefits of Statehood

Cited by 47 publications

References 78 publications

De Facto States: Survival and Disappearance (1945–2011)

De Facto States: Survival and Disappearance (1945–2011)

Does international recognition matter? Support for unilateral secession in Catalonia and Scotland

Twenty Years of de facto State Studies: Progress, Problems, and Prospects

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