Charting informal engagement between de facto states: a quantitative analysis

Abstract

Although being considered illegal entities and largely ignored, de facto states have received some extent of acceptance such as foreign representations short of embassies located in their capitals. This paper examines the conditions which lead to this informal engagement measured by the number of foreign representations to the contested states. We study the position of non-recognised states in the international system and the factors that condition this position. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this paper establishes sufficient and/or necessary conditions that lead to more informal diplomacy between established states and their non-recognised counterparts using data from eight cases.

Keywords:

• de facto states
• international system
• fsQCA

Notes on contributor

Raul Toomla is a lecturer of Internatonal Relations at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. He recently defended his PhD on the topic of de facto states and his main publications are on the same topic. The other main area of interest and research is international political economy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by institutional research funding of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research [IUT20-39].