Description
This article explores the question of how unrecognised states establish their statehood in the absence of the international recognition. More specifically, this paper analyses the statehood within the context of Role Theory, in which sovereignty is conceptualised as a given role by domestic population and the international society. The aim is to contribute to Role Theory approach with the use Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory. This study evaluates sovereignty as a bargain between the international society, unrecognised government, and domestic population. By doing so, the study brings an aged term, 'standards of civilisation', into conflict discussion and critically questions the concepts in the course of Two-Level Game. The study on Taiwan, Kosovo, Somaliland and Rojava indicates unrecognition triggers the conflict-prone relationship between sovereignty and self-determination. The study offers several causal explanations that can be generalisable into other cases. In so doing, the study adopts process tracing and a comparative approach to look at how statehood is (re)produced through unrecognised governments' actions and interactions. The analysis offers; the international recognition of statehood should not be explained by existing norms of sovereignty as sovereignty requires new conceptualisation; second, adaptation of standardisation appears more as a bargaining role to increase the state effectiveness.
