Collective Recognition and Dynamic Sovereignty

Abstract

This chapter builds on the typology of collective recognition to analyse how six international organisations (the UN, AU, OSCE, EU, ASEAN, and the Arab League) have responded to twenty-four statehood claimants lacking general recognition. These cases reveal significant variation in both the type and degree of recognition, which also shifts over time. The organisations span all regions where unrecognised or partially recognised claimants have been active, offering a global perspective. The chapter also demonstrates the typology’s theoretical potential by raising a series of questions, including those about the roles of membership and decision-making structures in shaping collective recognition outcomes. Finally, it contributes to sovereignty debates by highlighting it as a dynamic concept rather than a binary system of inclusion/exclusion therefore suggesting that international society is more flexible and contested than traditionally understood.