Defective Alike, Yet not Equal: Cyprus, Taiwan and Kosovo

This paper sets out to examine and compare three cases of political communities where internal and/or external political disagreements exist regarding the nature of the state and its political and legal subjectivity in international law, namely Cyprus, Taiwan and Kosovo. By looking at certain constrains and quite different state abilities of the three case studies, this paper argues that statehood and recognition criteria are often contradictory and unclear. In addition, it suggests that a new practice of partial statehood and incomplete sovereignty is gaining momentum in international politics. In this context, it looks at the continuous diminishing role of the Westphalian model of state and inability and powerlessness of the United Nations (UN) to set clear criteria for statehood and implement them accordingly.