Exactly five years ago, Vít Jedlička created his own state: Liberland. It’s located between Serbia and Croatia and designed to be a minarchist state—with as minimal government as possible. Listen to President Jedlicka speaking of his philosophy and bold plans.

The world is not the sum of its nation-states; there are places beyond UN member states that receive few visitors. Brussels Morning talks to Thomas de Waal, an explorer of diplomatically forsaken regions, to understand how these places feel.

Kyiv has raised the alarm over a buildup of Russian forces near the border between Ukraine and Russia, and over a rise in violence along the line of contact separating Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbass region.

Russian photographer Valery Melnikov is nominated with this image for the World Press Photo of the Year 2021. He documented the people that left areas that were to return to Azerbaijani control following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: this Armenian family is just about to leave their home.

Today in Europe there are 6.5 million people living in countries that, according to the rest of the world anyway, do not exist. These would-be republics’ borders, born out of the chaos of the fall of the Soviet Union, are unrecognized by the international family of nations, as is their legal right to dictate the shape of their futures.

What does it mean to be a citizen of Abkhazia, South Ossetia or any other de facto state? Are the people living in such territories stateless? What are some of the precarious situations they are faced with? An interview with our esteemed explorer Ramesh Ganohariti, a PhD student from Dublin City University.

Loyalist paramilitary groups have told the British and Irish governments they are withdrawing support for the Good Friday agreement in protest at Northern Ireland’s Irish Sea trade border with the rest of the UK.

The Republic of Parva Domus Magna Quies is located in Uruguay. Founded in 1878, the organization occupied an extensive hacienda in the outskirts of Montevideo, of which today only the main mansion remains. ‘According to them, with the exception of Parva Domus, the rest of the world is mad as hell.’

Even if you don’t know much about the Balkans, you might know that borders and maps are a rather sensitive issue there. But Miroslav Lajčák, the EU’s top official for the region, seemed caught by surprise when a map in his office sparked a storm of criticism from Kosovo and further afield.

Kalakuta Republic was a secessionist state within Nigeria that provided political asylum for musicians, friends and the extended family of popular afro-pop musician and activist Fela Kuti. Kuti founded his republic as a protest to the dictatorial regime. Forty-four years ago, the Kalakuta Republic was burned to the ground by government soldiers.

Separatist parties in Catalonia have boosted their parliamentary majority in the regional elections, held amid a third wave of coronavirus. The pro-union Socialist Party, led by former health minister Salvador Illa, won the most votes to claim a narrow victory, but will struggle to form a government.

Voters in Kosovo will cast their ballots in snap parliamentary elections—the sixth such poll in 14 years—which analysts have predicted will be a much tighter race than usual. Stay tuned for all the latest developments, election results and reactions as Kosovo citizens head to the polls to elect a new government.

Elections in Catalonia this week are poised to change the political landscape of the region as the ultranationalist party Vox is set to enter its parliament for the first time. Vox is campaigning on a hardline anti-separatist ticket.

Photographer Philippe Dudouit is one of the few foreigners who continues to travel to the Sahelo-Sahara region. His remarkable work The Dynamics of Dust gives an exceptional insight into the shifting alliances in this vast area that is often neglected in world politics.

A brewery in Vietnam has waded into one of the most contentious maritime disputes in the world by naming craft beers after islands claimed by China in a hops-flavored act of patriotism guaranteed to irritate Beijing.

The maritime law tribunal of the United Nations has ruled that Britain has no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. It criticized London for its failure to hand the territory back to Mauritius. The judges’ decision confirms a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a vote in the UN General Assembly.

Many Hong Kong citizens and opposition politicians look to Taiwan as a place to escape China’s growing influence. However, there is less desire for independence or to become a new Taiwan. The crux of Hong Kong’s issues lies in its confused identity and awkward geopolitical position. A long read from our new explorer Jonathan Casewell.

San Escobar is a non-existent country and emerged out of a blunder by the former Polish minister of foreign affairs, Witold Waszczykowski. The minister told reporters he had met with officials from various countries, including meeting some Caribbean nations ‘perhaps for the first time in the history of our diplomacy. For example with countries such as San Escobar or Belize’.

Only shortly after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, both parties issued postage stamps depicting the conflict from their own perspective. Hence, the propaganda war continues.

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. The picture they show is rather grim.

Since 1833 the Falkland Islands have been part of the British Overseas Territories. Argentina has always protested against this claim, also via philately. Stamps as actors in a “postal war”.

Gibraltar is moving towards a new era after the UK and Spain reached a preliminary post-Brexit deal to avoid a hard border on the south of the Iberian peninsula. This agreement would allow Gibraltar—officially a ‘British Overseas Territory’—to join the Schengen zone that guarantees passport-free travel and freedom of movement to more than 400 million EU citizens.

Their stadium is still in ruins due to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, but FK Qarabag, the ‘Barcelona of the Caucasus’, cannot wait to play its first home game again. A feature by Jarl van der Ploeg with pictures of Freek van den Bergh (in Dutch).

The Glacier Republic was founded by Greenpeace in the hope to protect Chilean glaciers from mining activities. Apart from rising temperatures, the mining explosions and pollution take a great toll on this environment. Greenpeace stated that once Chile passes legislation that will protect its glaciers, the republic will cease to exist. However, after seven years this micronation is still on the map.

Happy New Year! Early in January 1949 James Thomas Mangan posted a formal request to all the countries in the world to recognize his recently registered Nation of Celestial Space. This new nation was formed by ‘all of outer space’, because no other country should have political hegemony in space.

Antarktikos is a printed magazine, published once a year and it is looking for contributions. This annual journal combines artistic and scientific exploration within the inspiring and thought-provoking context of Antarctica. All disciplines are welcome to contribute. Antarktikos is an initiative by artist Esther Kokmeijer.

After the release of L’Isola delle Rose by Netflix, the extraordinary but largely untold story of the ‘prince of anarchists’ Giorgio Rose became popular immediately. The Italian engineer built his own island in the Adriatic sea in the 1960s, which housed a restaurant, bar, souvenir shop and even a post office.

Habib Chaab, founder of the Iranian separatist group ASMLA, was kidnapped in Turkey after a ‘honeytrap’ by Iran. Sky News published a detailed reconstruction of the audacious cross-border kidnap plan carried out in Istanbul. Two days after his abduction the founder of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz appeared on Iranian state television ‘confessing’ to terror acts.

‘Today, I signed a proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara’, President Trump wrote on Twitter, dramatically reversing U.S. policy on one of the world’s longest running and most neglected conflicts. What is going on here?

Lithuanian photographer Tadas Kazakevičius’s visual love letter Between Two Shores captures the peace and idiosyncrasy of the Curonian Spit—a unique and spectacular geographical formation, barely a mile wide across, that extends for over 60 miles from the coast of Lithuania into the Kaliningrad oblast of the Russian Federation.