The Collective Recognition of States

This book explains how international organisations express collective positions on the diplomatic recognition of states, how these positions change over time, and how they affect responses to conflict and broader international relations and security. The Collective Recognition of States offers the first comprehensive study of the collective diplomatic recognition of states, its expression through international organisations, and its impact on international relations. The book develops a novel conceptualisation of three recognition positions: recognition of a state, non-recognition, and titular recognition of a right to statehood and how they are collectively expressed through organisation-specific institutional or declarative means, such as UN membership for South Sudan and resolutions affirming Palestinian statehood rights or non-recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine. This conceptualisation moves beyond the recognition/non-recognition binary and also shows that recognition positions might change. This forms the basis of the book's dynamic sovereignty thesis, which posits that sovereignty-related conditions, such as diplomatic recognition or territorial control, vary both in degree and over time. Such a thesis challenges traditional views of statehood and how international relations are organised, most vividly illustrated by statehood conflicts related to secession or decolonisation. The book also explains how collective recognition shapes the way international organisations respond to statehood conflicts. Findings show that non-recognition fosters opposition, inaction, or engagement without recognition responses from international organisations, whereas recognition of a right to statehood can drive state-building activities. Some of these theoretical propositions are explored through more in-depth analyses, which also highlight the agency of statehood claimants within collective recognition processes. The Collective Recognition of States combines conceptual and theoretical depth across many cases with more in-depth investigation of selected examples. This analysis brings together diverse literatures, especially international relations, international law and conflict studies, and draws on a decade of research, including archival work, elite and expert interviews, and multi-site research.