 |
|
External sponsors of unrecognised states
It is, as a number of scholars have suggested, impossible to understand the creation and survival of unrecognised states without reference to external actors, and the entities are, more often than not, dependent on support from a patron state (see, for example, Kolstoe 2006; Lynch 2002). Such external dependence often leads to the accusation that these entities are nothing but the puppets of external actors. Nagorno Karabakh and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have, for example, been described as cases of foreign aggression – by Armenia and Turkey, respectively – and events in August 2008 vividly illustrated that Russia provides essential backing for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However, the relationship between unrecognised states and external actors is far more complex than the image of puppets would suggest.
The relationship is not one-sided and it is marked by a great degree of fluctuation. Even though unrecognised states rely on external support and actively pursue it, the resulting external dependence also creates serious dilemmas for the authorities: it enables their de facto independence, but at the same time detracts from its substance. Recent international developments, notably the recognition or partial recognition of Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, have complicated the relationship further by demonstrating that having powerful friends can simultaneously advance the goal of recognition and threaten the de facto independence that these entities have achieved. Such tensions ultimately affect the long-term sustainability of unrecognised states. The underlying dynamics point to two interesting conclusions: first, that there is a potential window of opportunity for conflict resolution; and second, that the contemporary international system significantly constrains and shapes entities that depart from conventional notions of sovereignty
Read the whole argument in Nina Caspersen, “Playing the Recognition Game: External Actors and De Facto States,” International Spectator (special issue on de facto states edited by Eiki Berg), forthcoming.
|
|
|
