Recognition, Status Quo or Reintegration : Engagement with de facto States

De facto states and their parent states usually have very different reasons for backing engagement policies, based on their respective claims to self-determination and territorial integrity. Drawing on four case studies—Abkhazia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Northern Cyprus—this article examines how this underlying tension is negotiated. It demonstrates the need to distinguish between different forms of engagement and finds that engagement is significantly constrained by parent state insistence on territorial integrity. Yet the issue of status can sometimes be fudged, depending on the degree of patron state support for the de facto state and its commitment to independence.