Statebuilding and the politics of non-recognition

Rebecca Richards

Robert Smith

pp. 162-177

in: Christopher Daase, Caroline Fehl, Anna Geis, Georgios Kolliarakis (eds), Recognition in international relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

Abstract

Recognition of sovereign statehood is the final obstacle facing those political entities in the international system that want to be states. For unrecognized states — those political entities existent within the international system that are states in everything but legal standing — recognition of sovereign statehood is the ultimate goal. The very act of granting recognition imparts a drastic change in the juridical legality and placement of the political entity under question, even though empirical change is unlikely in what are already developed political systems. Vague and inconsistent legal and quantifiable standards and precedents surround how much recognition, and by whom, equates to the granting of sovereignty. Still, those entities aspiring to statehood continue to hold it up as the goal to be reached. For most, it is the Holy Grail, a mythical achievement that will exist only as an aspiration. Regardless, the quest for recognition, and existence within the space of non-recognition, carries powerful political agency within these unrecognized states.