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> The antarctic treaty is supposed to prohibit nation states from claiming pieces of it as sovereign territory, but those negotiations from the 1950s/1960s didn
by sgjohnson 5y ago
> The antarctic treaty is supposed to prohibit nation states from claiming pieces of it as sovereign territory, but those negotiations from the 1950s/1960s didn't really envision modern billionaires doing such things independently.
You've actually got the same exact problem with the Outer Space Treaty. It only prohibits countries from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body.
- sudosysgen 5y agoClaiming soveregnity automatically makes you a country, no?
- dane-pgp 5y agoI think it would be more accurate to say "having your sovereignty recognised by other countries automatically makes you a country", but obviously there are bootstrapping problems with that definition.
- sudosysgen 5y agoSure, but you'd be recognising yourself as a country at least to have sovereignty.
- charcircuit 5y agoIf you form a new country that country isn't a part of existing treaties.
- sudosysgen 5y agoSure, but unless you sign those treaties no one will recognize you and then it's fair game to take all of your assets.
- sgjohnson 5y agoNot really. There’s actually not a single thing that every country in the world agrees on. There are 2 non-signatories of the Vienna Convention in Diplomatic Relations.
- sudosysgen 5y agoWhile that is true in theory, it's not true in practice. The 2 non-signatories are irrelevant countries.
- sgjohnson 5y agoI dunno, 12 million people live in South Sudan, and irrespective of that, there is not a single thing that every country agrees on. Even the definition of what a country is. How would you define a country? There’s also plenty of “global” treaties that United States is not a party of. Does this make the US a “irrelevant country”?
- sudosysgen 5y agoSouth Sudan is barely a state, as we both know, and is still fairly recent. Give them a few years. The US doesn't accede to these treaties because it has a huge economy and military.