Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Pan-African Research Journal Africa Published April 15, 2026 | Version v1 Journal article Open Sovereignty Without Territory Revisited: Recognition, Diplomatic Agency, and the Politics of Statehood in South Sudan, Somaliland, and Western Sahara Authors/Creators Ph.D., Abraham Kuol Nyuon, 1 Show affiliations 1.
¹ University of Juba, Graduate College, South Sudan Description Recognition as strategic interaction is developed as an analytical lens for understanding sovereignty without territory: contested statehood, international recognition, and diplomatic strategy in South Sudan, Somaliland, and Western Sahara. It argues that international recognition does not flow automatically from legal criteria or empirical statehood, but from interaction among patron alignments, regional norms, diplomatic entrepreneurship, and perceived governance legitimacy. Drawing on a structured, focused comparison of three cases across four variables—empirical statehood indicators, patron-state alignment, regional organisation posture, and governance legitimacy—combined with discourse analysis of UN Security Council resolutions and AU communiqués and elite interviews with foreign ministry officials, the study engages debates in post-Westphalian sovereignty, constructivism, and legal positivism while developing a typology of recognition strategies available to contested entities. Three core claims are advanced. First, South Sudan's rapid recognition reflected convergence between self-determination claims, regional sponsorship, great-power acceptance, and negotiated secession. Second, Somaliland demonstrates that effective governance can produce de facto legitimacy without formal recognition when regional norms remain restrictive. Third, Western Sahara shows how prolonged diplomatic contestation and patron rivalry can sustain durable limbo despite international visibility. The study concludes that recognition diplomacy operates as a sequence of legitimacy-accumulation strategies rather than a single juridical event, and that clearer regional doctrines and differentiated forms of diplomatic access are necessary for entities caught between empirical governance and geo Files final_69df7d7f1d9060.14966012_sovereignty-without-territory-revisited-recognition-diplomatic-agency-and-the-politics-of-statehood-in-south-sudan-somaliland-and-western-sahara.pdf Files (830.7 kB) Name Size Download all article.html md5:16fd2a3114e4734372f34a5e1f4c60df 517.8 kB Download final_69df7d7f1d9060.14966012_sovereignty-without-territory-revisited-recognition-diplomatic-agency-and-the-politics-of-statehood-in-south-sudan-somaliland-and-western-sahara.pdf md5:448395556499a7239232b0cb7578b553 308.3 kB Preview Download review_bundle.zip md5:1bf4d4f77309456cabb6be967eb5ed88 4.6 kB Preview Download Additional details Related works Is identical to Journal article: https://parj.africa/ajpols_intrel/article/view/32243 (URL) 52 Views 37 Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 52 52 Downloads Total downloads 37 37 Data volume Total data volume 11.5 MB 11.5 MB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords Contested statehood recognition sovereignty Somaliland uti possidetis self-determination Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19593461 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19593461) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19593461.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19593461 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19593461"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19593461.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19593461.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19593461 Resource type Journal article Publisher Zenodo Published in African International Relations, 1(1), 2026. Languages English Rights License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited. Read more Citation Export Technical metadata Created April 15, 2026 Modified April 15, 2026 Jump up About About Policies Infrastructure Principles Projects Roadmap Contact Blog Blog Support Help FAQ Developers REST API OAI-PMH Contribute GitHub Donate Funded by Powered by CERN Data Centre & InvenioRDM Status Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms of Use This site uses cookies. Find out more on how we use cookies Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies