The development of both Donetsk and Transnistria have a strong tendency to be seen as vessels for Russia’s search for influence in a Post-Soviet world. Yet these states are just as much the result of local context and the geopolitical storm that surrounds them. However, whatever the causes of their tribulations, the burden of international abandonment falls on the people in these nations.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has announced a state of emergency and deployed troops to two southern regions where clashes have broken out between Mapuche indigenous people and security forces. The Mapuche are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and self-determination.

In Blood and Honey: Encounters at the Borders of the Balkans, Dutch journalist Irene van der Linde and documentary photographer Nicole Segers set out to document the borders of the Balkans. Go and watch their work at Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen (the Netherlands).

Tsai Ing-wen condemns China’s plans for Taiwan and says island will continue to build its defences.

Former Catalan separatist leader says he is ‘very happy’ after walking free from Sardinian court.

The UAE deputy foreign minister’s address to the United Nations stirred up the territorial dispute, which has long been at the very core of tensions between the Arab state and the Islamic Republic.

One year after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is nothing that would carry even a faint promise of reconciliation and co-existence.

French adventurer Antoine de Tounens created this vassal kingdom of France in Patagonia in 1860 but was declared insane and got sent back to France. The Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia is the last remnant to create autonomy for the Mapuche people, the indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina.

Kosovo deployed special police units as Serbs blocked roads near border crossing points with Serbia after the Pristina government imposed new rules forcing them to switch to temporary Kosovo licence plates when entering the country. “This is a direct threat to our people”, local protesters say.

The exhibition ‘Power, Lust and Zinc’ is now on show at Bureau Europa in Maastricht (the Netherlands). The history of this metal tells of political struggles and the European ambition for unification. Most zinc was won in Kelmis, today in Belgium, where ground was so rich that border disputes arose. The diplomatic solution was the erection of a new country: Neutral Moresnet.

On 9/11 the focus turns to Guantanamo Bay, the oldest US overseas naval base. It was leased from Cuba in 1903, despite continuous protests of the Cuban government. Since 2002 it was used to detain prisoners from the War on terror, over 750 detainees were being held there. The camp has been criticized widely by human rights organizations: prisoners are being kept indefinitely without trial and several detainees having been allegedly tortured. Today, 39 prisoners remain.

Exactly thirthy-one years ago, Transnistria declared independence from Moldova. This week it wrote history, entering the Champions League with its football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol. Welcome to the country that officially still does not exist.

Jake Wright, Ramesh Ganohariti and Jennifer Dowling of Leiden University discuss the phenomenon of borders and their implications, using the case of post-Brexit Northern Ireland as a focal point.

Washington has strategic, economic, and normative reasons for safeguarding the island from Chinese coercion.

Varosha, once a chic resort, is being rebuilt in the latest move of Turkey’s power play in the eastern Mediterranean.

Rarely has an election in a small post-Soviet country been watched so closely.

The fugitive leader of a prominent Biafra secessionist group has been arrested and extradited to Nigeria, in a move likely to inflame separatist unrest in south-east Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu had been wanted by Nigerian authorities since 2015, when he was charged with terrorism offences and incitement, after broadcasts aired on Radio Biafra, a digital station he founded and ran from his home in Peckham (UK).

If you’re looking to find a safe haven from lockdowns, you might be in the market for an entire micronation.

These stories of life in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are told by journalist Diana Gasparyan who went there to meet local residents and learn first-hand what is happening there after the second Karabakh war. During the trip, she kept a travel diary for JAMnews.

A new kit for Ukraine’s football team, showing a map including Russian-annexed Crimea, has provoked anger in Moscow.

The South Korean government and activists alike expressed deep regret toward a map marking disputed islets as Japanese territory.

Spanish officials say Morocco increasingly sees migrants as currency for financial and political gains after it let up to 12,000 flood into a Spanish enclave in North Africa over two days.

Russian peacekeepers have radically reshaped the region. An analysis by Tom Mutch.

At least 6,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Ceuta enclave from neighbouring Morocco, a record number over a single day, Spanish officials say.

In his book, Madhouse at the End of the Earth, author Julian Sancton explains that there is something about the southernmost continent that really drives people mad. An excerpt from the book.

Thirty years ago, on May 18th, 1991, the Republic of Somaliland declared independence. This separation from Somalia certainly was a bold move back then. For over a decade it was impossible to predict what would really come out of the secession. But today it is clear: Somaliland is one of the most stable de facto states in the world, nonetheless, it is still not internationally recognized.

Refusal to recognise British Indian Ocean Territory stamps is latest move to assert Mauritian sovereignty.

A conflict over natural resources has flared into serious border skirmishes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. By Andrea Schmitz & Dumitru Minzarari.

Bloc had hoped ‘cheese diplomacy’ could help bridge divide, but PDO status has fueled further ructions.

The Conch Republic was born on April 23, 1982, in response to a US Border Patrol blockade of the Florida Keys. Since the US insisted on treating the Keys like a foreign country, Mayor Dennis Wardlow decided to secede. Today the community stands proudly as one with a “sovereign state of mind”.