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Countries That Don't Exist
- guai898 11y agoTaiwan is probably the largest "invisible" country. 23 million people Army personnel : 290,000 Tanks: 2,005 Total aircraft: 804 Submarines: 4
- imrehg 11y agoGreetings from Taiwan. :) It's pretty much a "let's pretend we cannot see you" sort of diplomacy one the side of most countries (including my birth country in Europe) - most just set up a "trade office" and conduct things almost like an embassy. Living here for ~7 years and thinking quite a bit about it, I believe statehood defined by membership of "club" that is the United Nations is quite laughable. There was no such thing a hundred years ago, and while the UN does bring a lot of good things to the table, this misrepresentation of reality (for obvious powerplay reasons) is just awful...
- matthewrudy 11y agoI lived in Taipei for a year. I loved it, but I could never find a suitable startup to work with. So ended up moving back to HK. I'll be back some time. But I fear for Taiwan's future.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoI'm curious, why do you fear for its future?
- maxerickson 11y agoSome change this week: https://www.google.com/search?q=Taiwan&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=Taiwan&tbm=nws (I don't pretend to understand how meaningful it is, but it was the first such meeting)
- brobinson 11y agoMany people (including my friends here in Taiwan) believe it's an attempt by the PRC to influence the elections which are being held here in about two months. The KMT (Ma's party) are going to get annihilated according to polls. The political situation here is interesting, to say the least. There's also this funny video about the meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEn3xqrMasc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEn3xqrMasc
- eva1984 11y agoIt will be dangerous if Taiwan attempts to put its plan of independence into action, even though in reality it effectively has one. Once CCP still controls mainland China, Taiwan has no chance to get this working without military response from the other side. It is for the best interests of both sides to just keep things as it is.
- brobinson 11y agoI don't think there's any kind of formal independence plan. KMT is pro-"eventual reunification". DPP is pro-"eventual independence" but could never campaign with that or PRC would get very angry. I think it's well past the point for a peaceful reunification. Only a very small subset of the population here identifies as "Chinese-only" and an even smaller subset want to reunify. Young Taiwanese increasingly identify as "Taiwanese-only" and want eventual independence. I have no skin in this fight (other than that I like Taiwan and dislike the actions of the Chinese government), but it's interesting to watch as an observer. I think things will remain as they are for a long time.
- desdiv 11y ago>Many people (including my friends here in Taiwan) believe it's an attempt by the PRC to influence the elections which are being held here in about two months. How would that even work? 1. Most people in Taiwan hate the Community Party of China 2. KMT and CPC arrange a meeting to show that they're frenemies with each other 3. KMT loses in the election, which hurts both the KMT and the CPC So it's conspiracy to between the CPC and KMT to sabotage themselves?
- ultimatejman 11y agoThe micro nation Sealand is brilliant. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150414-i-rule-my-own-ocean-micronation http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150414-i-rule-my-own-ocean...
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoHasn't been legitimate for a long time, though. England's maritime boundaries were extended a while back. If they try something, English police will descend.
- Choronzon 11y agoLibya and Iraq can effectively added to this list.
- paublyrne 11y agoYes. And many African and Middle East countries are inventions to various degrees of the colonial powers. See Nigeria, Transjordania ...
- alextgordon 11y agoI thought this was going to be about the excellent BBC series "Places That Don't Exist"[1] that covers Somaliland, Transnistria, Taiwan, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_That_Don%27t_Exist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_That_Don%27t_Exist Simon Reeve himself has posted it on youtube, so I guess it's OK to link it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRET1fHLWdE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRET1fHLWdE
- __float 11y agoWas the video working when you posted this? I just see "This video is unavailable." (in the US though--but it doesn't say it's blocked in my country?)
- aluhut 11y agoSurprisingly it's available from Germany.
- alextgordon 11y agoIt is working in UK. I wonder if he set it to EU-only then.
- tellarin 11y agoWorks fine for me in South Korea.
- dennisgorelik 11y agoIt does not work for me (US).
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoDon't forget frozen conflicts. South Ossetia, Nagoro-Karabakh, Donetsk People's Republic, Luhansk People's Republic, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, Abkhazia... these are just the post-Soviet ones. Then there's the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, of course. Legitimate or not, it's very much a state.
- serpentor 11y agoThe funny thing about depictions of ISIS' areas of operation and control on maps provided by, say... The New York Times, is that they're always shown as wispy red tendrils curling along main highways and around towns, and that level of spin is a bit silly. The point being that there's some sort of psychological effort being made, to assert that while all the main roads are under control, and all the main roads certainly surround much larger areas, ISIS only controls the first 25 feet outside of the roadway, as if it's bound by some sort of municipal Iraqi or Syrian zoning ordinance.
- KevinEldon 11y agoISIS doesn't have an Air Force; they can't really defend the desert they don't occupy event if it's terrorist with little strategic importance. Had the maps shown ISIS with more territory someone might suggest a psychoigical effort was being made to scare people into supporting a more direct conflict with ISIS. I do think it would be interesting to know how journalists draw these maps though.
- serpentor 11y agoI dunno. Technicalities of vertical envelopment aside, once something is surrounded it's usually considered ceded to those who have it surrounded. An inability to defend, contrasted with an unlikely target to be attacked, leaves you with ease of access as a defining quality of possession.
- jdfellow 11y agoAnd here's a new one, on the west bank of the Danube between Croatia and Serbia. https://liberland.org https://liberland.org
- nommm-nommm 11y agoWould Republika Srpska be considered one?
- Mz 11y agoReminds me of an email I once wrote that started out talking about Georgia as an imaginary place. Countries, states, counties, cities -- these all have to be dreamed up first in a way that, say, a continent or river does not need to be dreamed up. A continent exists whether we define it and name it or not. Not so with a politically defined "place."
- cwmma 11y agoStrange they mentioned the Republic of Lakotah while not mentioning the Navaho Nation[1] as the latter is an actually functional government, though the fact that it doesn't try to claim statehood doesn't help, the fact that it actually operates does give it a leg up on Lakotah. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation
- freditup 11y agoThe area of the midwest referenced in this article is a fascinating area. It's essentially undiscussed and unthought about in mainstream American thought. But it's so interesting to drive around out there, so much land, few people, and when you do come to towns, everyone in them is Native American. It's just different than anything I've experienced on the east or west coasts.
- stephengillie 11y agoInteresting that Western Sahara isn't mentioned. It actually isn't a country, but it looks like one. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara
- Systemic33 11y agoThe paragraph about Christiania is bullshit. It is not legal to smoke or sell cannabis there, and the police have done several raids over the years. Most people don't even consider it a country, but more like a borough for the hippies. Copenhagen is mainly social democrat, with some areas even more left wing, and clearing out Christiania would be a very unpopular idea, because a large majority of their voters support Christiania.
- JupiterMoon 11y agoI'm not sure about how large (or how solid) the majority that support Christiania is, most Copenhageners seem divided on the issue. Cannabis is de facto legal in Christiania: people buy, sell and use it openly there without repercussions. This seems to be widely regarded as a good thing.
- rmason 11y agoThe amateur radio organization, American Radio Relay League (ARRL), has its own definition of a country. I can't locate the exact definition on the web but in general it is stated that each discrete geographical or political entity is considered to be a country. Many of these 'countries' lack even population but are considered so for awards purposes. Hams schedule trips to put these countries on the air. Here's the ARRL list: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/dxcclist.txt http://www.arrl.org/files/file/dxcclist.txt
- ThinkingGuy 11y agoThe Travelers Century Club maintains a similar list. Feel free to compare and contrast: http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories/ http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories/
- john_fushi 11y agoAfter playing Eu4 for a while, I'm kinda disapointed the knights aren't mentionned. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Ma...
- geon 11y agoHaving a state not based on a geographical boundary would be interesting for democracy. You could join such a state based on your political alignment, and pay/not pay your taxes to them. It would be like working abroad.
- joss82 11y agoIt's sad that they don't talk about Uzupis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C5%BEupis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C5%BEupis A nice little artsy pseudo-country in Vilnius, Lithuania.
- gozo 11y agoI know way too much about this subject, some favorites are... Åland Islands, an autonomous region between Sweden and Finland which belongs to Finland but is Swedish-speaking. What makes it notable is that it's a demilitarized zone. Something that is more usual for conflict zones like in Korea or far away places like Antarctica. It also holds an VAT exception from the EU which makes it possible to buy tax-free goods on the ferries between Sweden and Finland. TLD: .ax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85land_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85land_Islands San Marino, a microstate in Italy claiming to be the oldest sovereign state in the world that for some reason enjoy the best visa rules to China of any country. Presumably because China will generally give you the same visa rules as you give its citizens. Like many other microstates it's hard to become a neutralized citizen, requiring having lived there for at least 30 years. TLD: .sm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_microstates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_microstates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_China Bir Tawil, an area between Egypt and Sudan that is, because of disagreement over borders, claimed by neither of them. Supposedly the most non-remote unclaimed territory on earth. TLD: not yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil
- vitd 11y agoI just have to ask, given your name, are you from Gozo? I visited once about 7-8 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it!
- gozo 11y agoNo, few people are. But I've been there and, although probably not Gozo, I'm looking to move to Malta in a few months.
- desdiv 11y agoSan Marino is in the UN though, so it's a proper country country.