Why Is Western Sahara Losing Recognitions? Even though decolonisation is widely associated with the second half of the 20th century, it is not yet an issue of the past. The struggle for self-determination in the Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro areas, better … #Blog Posts 04.04.2021
Diaspora Politics on Abkhazia: Involved in Half Capacity President Aslan Bzhania had an important meeting with his counterpart Vladimir Putin on November 12, 2020. With the ongoing global pandemic and subsequent collapse of the tourism sector paired with an energy crisis, Abkhazia has been facing difficult … #Blog Posts 22.03.2021
Complete Separation Is Not What Transnistrians Voted for in 1989-1990 When I started my PhD almost 4 years ago, I wanted to explore the internal dynamics of Transnistria’s secession movement. From what I had read up to that point, it was clear that Russia’s involvement in the … #Blog Posts 14.03.2021
Is Russia Winning the Second Karabakh War? During the 44-day conflict in and around the de facto state of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR), Russia played a noticeably passive role. The Kremlin, in an agreement to protect Armenia, felt no need to intervene because Azerbaijan did not … #Blog Posts 28.02.2021
International Recognition for Northern Cyprus: Much Ado About Nothing? When the Turkish Cypriots elected their president in October 2020, they were not simply choosing a figurehead for the next five years, but rather a vision for the future of Northern Cyprus. As the chief negotiator in … #Blog Posts 10.02.2021
U.S. Recognition of Moroccan Claims to Western Sahara: Mixed Consequences and a Diagnosis On 10 December 2020 outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. recognised Moroccans claims to sovereignty over Western Sahara. Mixed consequences will likely follow Trump’s proclamation. The decision has already led to impacts on the … #Blog Posts 18.01.2021
Overview of 2020: Separatism, Non-recognition, and Borders in a Pandemic For most states, 2020, the year of the pandemic, was a challenging one. The role that borders and international relations have had in the last decades was turned upside-down in 2020 as states tried to stop the … #Blog Posts 04.01.2021
The Different Manifestations of Territorial Partition in South Africa The state of South Africa was established in 1910 after four British colonies (two of which had previously been independent Boer republics) agreed to form a union with the blessing of their imperial overlord. The Union of … #Blog Posts 06.12.2020
How Big Business Attempts to Hijack the Popular Vote to the Supreme Council of Transnistria in 2020 On November 29, 2020, parliamentary and local government elections will be held in Transnistria. Following the elections, 33 deputies of the Supreme Council and 895 members of village, district and city councils, as well as heads of … #Blog Posts 23.11.2020
Déjà-vu or ‘Walking Towards a New Future’? Northern Cyprus After the October 2020 Presidential Elections While the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict seems to currently dominate public debates on de facto states, the recent presidential elections in Northern Cyprus (TRNC) may portend the escalation of tensions over yet another resilient de facto state whose … #Blog Posts 09.11.2020