Normative Standing: De Facto State Identity and International Legitimation

Abstract

This thesis makes an original contribution to the field of de facto state studies. The robustness and durability of de facto states in the post-Cold War era has defied scholars’ earlier predictions of likely impermanence. In the de facto states literature that followed, a focus on rational choice approaches permeated the analysis of these states’ international engagement, however the concept of de facto state identity and how it shapes the relationship with international society has yet to be fully explored and analysed. A recent trend towards examining the legitimation strategies of de facto states has been restricted by an under-conceptualisation of the social system that they inhabit, restricting the explanatory utility of legitimacy as an analytical lens.

Rather than an abnormality, non-recognition has been the norm in the relationship between de facto states and international society. A stasis has formed. The under-conceptualisation of the relationship has remained a partial void that has limited the understanding of a phenomenon that continues to challenge central concepts in the discipline of International Relations. The core objective of this thesis is to address that conceptual need by synthesising constructivist and English School approaches to build a conceptual framework of normative standing that enables a clearer articulation of the relationship between de facto states and international society. It employs a constructivist methodology to examine the recognition narrative of de facto states, in order to conduct constitutive analysis of their state identities, and to build the foundations of a theory of normative standing.

Three case studies, with varying degrees of international engagement and parent state relationships, were selected for the examination of the application of the conceptual framework. Together, they provide for an effective generalisation across the spectrum of de facto states. The three case studies ― Nagorno Karabakh, Somaliland, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq ― were informed by fieldwork interviews conducted in situ. The theory of normative standing proposed by this thesis proves to be a useful tool to explain de facto states' endurability, how de facto statehood has itself become a role identity in the international system, and the stasis of the relationship between de facto states and international society.