I see a lot of people saying that countries like Israel, Latvia, Belgium and Dubai are not real countries, but how are they not? They seem to meet the threshold. How are they any less real then any other country?
Legally: if any other countries recognize it.
Morally: no country is real. Nationalism is a mind virus.
The Map Men explain it better than I could:
How do you start a new country? https://youtu.be/hX4s1ZLW_PI
There are NOT 195 countries https://youtu.be/3nB688xBYdY
And just for fun…
The mystery of the squarest country https://youtu.be/8mrNEVUuZdk
(Yes, I’m a big fan!)
Map men, map men, map map map men (men men)
Dubai is a city and the capital of the UAE.Edit: Dubai is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, an emirate of the UAE. The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi.
But on Wikipedia it says it’s a country?
The emirate of Dubai a state (not a country)inside the UAE similar to how California is a state inside the USA.
I swear there is a page on Wikipedia about the country of Dubai.
Dubai was an independent country before 1971. (Although sort of under the British since 1833, the exact details varied over time.)
Either that or you’re thinking about Djibouti.
Yeah, it’s a bit complicated. They retain some level of sovereignty within the UAE as I understand it, unlike Califonia, which since the civil war has basically been just a subnational division.
You could just post the link.
Giant mix up here. When I read “Emirate” I thought that was a Arabic word for state. My bad.
A lot of Arabic discourse I seen relates to the legitimacy of certain Arab countries. Kind of like the Balkans. There’s a belief that Qatar, Kuwait and even Palestine aren’t real countries.
Are you thinking of the Emirate of Dubai? It’s not a country either. Also, I was wrong about Dubai being the capital.
The amount of countries that recognize it as a country. Yes, it’s circular logic. That said, if they act independent of other countries, they are likely a country whether recognized or not.
For a fun side topic, take a look at Micronations
There’s a set of “official” countries that legally recognise each other, but in practice any group that has a local monopoly on the use of violence (so, trapping people in jails without going to jail for it, basically) can be equivalent. In fact, some of these have partial recognition, like Taiwan, Kosovo, or the non-official half of Libya.
Israel, Latvia, Belgium and Dubai
That’s such a mixed bag.
Dubai is part of some kind of confederation (the UAE), and doesn’t even claim to be a full country. Israel exists, but there’s a lot of controversy about how it’s managed that. Belgium exists, but doesn’t have a unified cultural identity the same way as most European countries. Finally, Latvia exists but Russia doesn’t want it to, although I might be missing something about how distinct it is from Lithuania.
How is any country more real than any other?
That’s what I’m asking.
Mainly if other countries believe it is a country and treat it as a country. You can look at Taiwan as an example. For all intents and purposes, it acts as a country. Yet, almost all countries do not classify Taiwan as a country, so it isn’t really a country.
In modern days, recognition of being a country is generally handled by the UN as it is an organization of countries which recognize each other.
It has to do with recognition. For instance, Sealand meets all of the requirements: a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to engage in relations with other states (I believe this is codified somewhere in the UN’s laws and policies).
But, most places don’t consider Sealand a real country because other countries don’t officially recognize it. Which is kind of weird to think, that being a country is like being a popular girl: if the other popular girls say you’re a popular girl, then you are. If they decide you’re not, then you’re not.
So, while there is a quantified threshold, the de facto rule is whether other countries recognize you. It’s also similar for honorific titles.
deleted by creator
I don’t know if the rest of that series is available, but there you go.
A country is a country to those countries that have said (recognized) them as a country. So all countries have their own list of what countries exists and what borders they have. The same way as borders are drawn differently in google maps depending on what country you access the website from.
