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The Durability of Parastates: Declarative Statehood in the Absence of Constitutive Sovereignty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Michael Rossi
Michael Rossi*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Long Island University Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Michael.Rossi@liu.edu
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Abstract

This article assesses the characteristics of the parastate; a territorial entity that operates outside the formal structures of international law and sovereign recognition. The primary obstacle for parastates transforming declarative statehood into constitutive sovereignty is the nature of their creation, which is seen as a violation of another state’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Parastates are thus prevented from becoming equal members of the international community with access to and decision-making in international organizations and governing bodies. Left outside these groups, parastates remain disputed territories dependent on patron state sponsorship and blocked from improving their status by international actors that deny sovereign recognition. Despite these limitations, parastates have a noted record of endurance that can last decades as long as the international status quo prevents the host state from regaining control of the contested territory. This article concludes that while options for ending frozen conflicts of parastates are not impossible, they are extremely costly and highly risky. Without decisive diplomatic and military leverage favoring the host state, parastates will continue to endure for the foreseeable future.

Keywords

parastatessovereigntyfrozen conflictconflict resolutionsecession
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on the Emergence and Resilience of Parastates , January 2020 , pp. 24 - 41
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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