Political Culture in Unrecognized States

This project explores the similarities in the practice of politics in unrecognized states. Unrecognized states are bodies that perform government functions, while remaining unrecognized and "illegal" in the international arena. This puts them in a liminal position, having all the trappings of states, without being recognized as such. His research explores the effects of this liminality on political culture, or the way that politics is practiced in these states. The project especially examines the relations between unrecognized states and their "patrons" - Turkey in the case of northern Cyprus, Russia in the cases of states such as Abkhazia and Transnistria - and how the necessity for a patron state affects the way that domestic politics is conducted.