Playing the Recognition Game: External Actors and De Facto States

De facto states and their socio-economic structures in the post-Soviet space after the annexation of Crimea

“…Authors who have dealt with post-Soviet de facto states in a long-term are not numerous, which is given by the fact that they are economically marginal and politically they represent largely stable elements of the power influence of Russia in the post-Soviet space. In Western literature, this issue has been investigated in long--term mainly by N. Caspersen (2008Caspersen ( , 2009Caspersen ( , 2012, G. Toal (2013Toal ( , 2015 and J. , with whom Russian geographer V. Kolossov has been co-operating and also publishing (2011). Their work is focused 2 The share of the monarchist Russia lies mainly in the genocidal Caucasian War and the annexation of eastern Moldova as a foreground for the conquest of the Balkans.…”

Parent StatesversusSecessionist Entities: Measuring Political Legitimacy in Cyprus, Moldova and Bosnia & Hercegovina

“…There are also studies of the secessionist entities in the Caucasus (Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh) which demonstrate practical aspects of legitimacy and the regimes' capacity to provide the people with services, basic infrastructure and welfare (Kolstø & Blakkisrud 2008) as well as strategies for seeking external legitimation in which 'the authorities portray themselves as the embodiment of the fight for self-determination' (Caspersen 2007). In this regard it has become clear that the secessionist entities are not very successful in selling this idea to their people because their internal legitimacy has, to a large extent, been tied up with the promise of recognition (Caspersen 2009). …”

De Facto States and Democracy: The Case of Abkhazia

“…Until now, research on de facto states has been mostly conducted by political scientists or specialists in the field of security studies, international relations or area studies (Pegg, 1998;King, 2001;Lynch, 2002Lynch, , 2004Kolstø, 2006;Popescu, 2006Popescu, , 2007Berg, 2007;Kolstø and Blakkisrud, 2012;Caspersen, 2008aCaspersen, , 2009Caspersen, , 2011Caspersen, , 2012Protsyk, 2009;Caspersen and Stansfield, 2011;Simão, 2012;Pegg and Berg 2014). Contributions by political geographers deal with particular problems of de facto stateness.…”

“…It was during this second phase of research on de facto states when the democratisation-for-recognition strategy has been formulated (e.g. Broers, 2005;Popescu, 2006;Caspersen, 2009;Berg and Mölder, 2012;Kolstø and Blakkisrud, 2012). …”

“…One of them is the democratisation-for-recognition strategy, based on a conviction of de facto states representatives that the international community will recognise their political entities if they are democratic (e.g. Broers 2005;Popescu 2006;Caspersen 2009;Berg and Mölder 2012;Kolstø and Blakkisrud 2012).…”