This book investigates a phenomenon in world politics that is largely overlooked by scholars, namely entities lacking international recognition of their status as independent states. It includes casestudies on the Eurasian Quartet, Kosovo, Somaliland, Palestine, Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara and Taiwan."

This book examines a largely neglected phenomenon in the field of international relations--the concept of the isolated state. Deon Geldenhuys begins by discussing how he measures both voluntary and enforced international isolation by, among other things, membership of international organizations, official visits and international censure. He then presents a number of case studies of self-isolation. The remainder of the study is devoted to an analysis of the enforced isolation of Taiwan, Israel, Chile and South Africa. Using a wealth of statistical material, he demonstrates their varying...