Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood

A journalist explores how our world's borders came to be and how self-proclaimed countries across the globe could change the map. What is a country? While certain basic criteria--borders, a government, and recognition from other countries--seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating investigates what happens in areas of the world that exist as exceptions to these rules. Invisible Countries looks at semiautonomous countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somaliland, as well as a Mohawk reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border, and an island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change. Through stories about these would-be countries' efforts at self-determination, Keating shows that there is no universal legal authority determining what a country is. He also argues that economic, cultural, and environmental forces could soon bring an end to our long period of cartographical stasis. Keating combines history with incisive observations drawn from his travels and interviews with residents, political leaders, and scholars in each of these "invisible countries."

About the Author :
Joshua Keating is a foreign policy analyst, staff writer, and editor at Slate. Previously, he was a an editor at Foreign Policy. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Review :
"Mr. Keating offers few answers, but he raises good questions. As secessionist movements flourish in Europe, and climate change threatens to obliterate littoral states, the issue of what it means to be a nation is acquiring new salience."--The Economist "As informative as it is readable. . . . A timely book."--Foreign Policy "At its core, Invisible Countries is a book about how the drama of nation-building transforms and is transformed by the politics of the world stage."--Daniel Solomon, New Republic "Keating offers a clear-eyed look into what it means to be a country today--in an age when it's become more difficult to forge new states--and how, increasingly, the notion of statehood is being challenged in unexpected ways. He mixes his historical and political investigation with intrepid reporting that centers those people who are navigating the apparent cracks along world borders."--Pacific Standard "Invisible Countries is a serious, indefatigable attempt to explore the vexing issue of national identity."--Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of Geography "Invisible Countries takes its readers on an incredible journey to some of the world's most unlikely, fragile but determined would-be nations. It's also a wonderfully humane and urgent intellectual quest to find out why countries and borders still matter so much in our supposedly globalizing era."--Alastair Bonnett, author of Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies "Through fascinating journeys to quasi-states and nations lacking UN membership, Keating deftly illustrates his case: we must remember our current set of countries are means to the good life, not ends in themselves."--Charles Kenny [either Senior Fellow, the Center for Global Development and/or author Getting Better: How Global Development is Succeeding]. "With sharp reporting and a far-flung sense of adventure, Joshua Keating provides an unprecedented examination of what it means to be a nation in the twenty-first century. You'll never look at the world map the same way after reading this thought-provoking book.--Doug Mack, author of The Not-Quite States of America