ON DOES NOT EXIST from Israel and its ally the United States, who saw this move as an attempt to bypass peace negotiations and be recognized as a country. The United States then declared it would be cutting off all of its funding for UNESCO as a reaction to this move. That meant the organization would be short $60 million in funding this year and face further money problems in the future. If enough people say you don’t exist, it becomes very hard to fully exist, and sometimes even dangerous to try. Academic research on the topic of unrecog-
nized states has examined the symptoms that lead to this paralysis-like status. One of the major conclusions is as follows: being denied recognition is almost cause enough to destroy a state. - Almost. In reality, unrecognized or partially recognized states somehow manage to exist, albeit an extremely troubled existence. Smuggling, trafficking, lack of legitimate economic opportunities, and in some cases dangerous ethnic or political tension are among the problems that plague these nations. The list of names
is long, some dating back to the beginning of the 1900’s, as is the case of the Republic of China (Taiwan), recognized by 22 UN member states. Others are more recent, like Kosovo (2008)-recognized by 85 UN member states, or Abkhazia (1999)- recognized by 6 UN member states. It most cases, these regions have broken away from a country who continuously refuse to recognize their new sovereignty. They may also have a powerful patron state who officially support their claim of independence for political reasons, as is the case of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
9