this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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What makes a country real/not real? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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I see a lot of people saying that countries like Israel, Latvia, Belgium and Dubai are not real countries, but how are they not? They seem to meet the threshold. How are they any less real then any other country?

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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

???

Out of the ones you mention, Dubai is in fact not a real country and I have not seen anyone claim that it is; it is a city and region of the country called the United Arab Emirates.

Israel isn't universally recognized by all countries because some countries claim it is illegitimate (for religious reasons, because they say it is a colonialist project, etc. etc.).

Belgium is a country with different parts speaking different languages also spoken in neighboring countries, that is why some people have claimed it's not (culturally) its own country, but I don't think anyone seriously refuses to recognize it as a country.

As for Latvia, no idea whatsoever what you're talking about.

So the question as asked is unanswerable because you're giving confusing and inconsistent examples.

[–] Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"Out of the ones you mention, Dubai is in fact not a real country and I have not seen anyone claim that it is;"

I swear to god I read a wiki article about the state of Dubai. I've also seen other people talk about it as if it's a country.

"As for Latvia, no idea whatsoever what you’re talking about."

A lot of communists don't like the three Baltic states, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. They calm there not real countries for some reason. They say the same for the Ukraine.

"So the question as asked is unanswerable because you’re giving confusing and inconsistent examples."

The examples I gave didn't matter. I was asking a broader question about what makes the country legitimate or not.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 weeks ago

Dubai is likely the most well-known part of the UAE, so you may have heard people mention Dubai as if it were a country (because the audience might associate more with "Dubai" than "UAE"), without them meaning to imply that it's a real country.

There are certainly irredentist movements in many parts of the world that want to restore previous states of geopolitics, including the existence of the Soviet Union.

A country is ultimately a country if it is recognized as such by other countries. There are videos on the Internet that give greater details (search for keywords like "how many countries are there"). There are many places that some other countries say are countries, others not.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 3 weeks ago

Legally: if any other countries recognize it.

Morally: no country is real. Nationalism is a mind virus.

[–] shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The Map Men explain it better than I could:

How do you start a new country? https://youtu.be/hX4s1ZLW_PI

There are NOT 195 countries https://youtu.be/3nB688xBYdY

And just for fun...

The mystery of the squarest country https://youtu.be/8mrNEVUuZdk

(Yes, I'm a big fan!)

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Map men, map men, map map map men (men men)

[–] CatherineLily@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

~~Dubai is a city and the capital of the UAE.~~

Edit: Dubai is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, an emirate of the UAE. The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi.

[–] Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

But on Wikipedia it says it's a country?

[–] dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The emirate of Dubai a state (not a country)inside the UAE similar to how California is a state inside the USA.

[–] Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I swear there is a page on Wikipedia about the country of Dubai.

[–] Lemmisaur@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Dubai was an independent country before 1971. (Although sort of under the British since 1833, the exact details varied over time.)

Either that or you're thinking about Djibouti.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah, it's a bit complicated. They retain some level of sovereignty within the UAE as I understand it, unlike Califonia, which since the civil war has basically been just a subnational division.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You could just post the link.

[–] Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Giant mix up here. When I read "Emirate" I thought that was a Arabic word for state. My bad.

A lot of Arabic discourse I seen relates to the legitimacy of certain Arab countries. Kind of like the Balkans. There's a belief that Qatar, Kuwait and even Palestine aren't real countries.

https://share.google/zU2WrcLx0AbnRrkH6

[–] CatherineLily@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 weeks ago

Are you thinking of the Emirate of Dubai? It's not a country either. Also, I was wrong about Dubai being the capital.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

The amount of countries that recognize it as a country. Yes, it's circular logic. That said, if they act independent of other countries, they are likely a country whether recognized or not.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There's a set of "official" countries that legally recognise each other, but in practice any group that has a local monopoly on the use of violence (so, trapping people in jails without going to jail for it, basically) can be equivalent. In fact, some of these have partial recognition, like Taiwan, Kosovo, or the non-official half of Libya.

Israel, Latvia, Belgium and Dubai

That's such a mixed bag.

Dubai is part of some kind of confederation (the UAE), and doesn't even claim to be a full country. Israel exists, but there's a lot of controversy about how it's managed that. Belgium exists, but doesn't have a unified cultural identity the same way as most European countries. Finally, Latvia exists but Russia doesn't want it to, although I might be missing something about how distinct it is from Lithuania.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

For a fun side topic, take a look at Micronations

[–] narr1@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How is any country more real than any other?

[–] Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

That's what I'm asking.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 weeks ago

Mainly if other countries believe it is a country and treat it as a country. You can look at Taiwan as an example. For all intents and purposes, it acts as a country. Yet, almost all countries do not classify Taiwan as a country, so it isn't really a country.

In modern days, recognition of being a country is generally handled by the UN as it is an organization of countries which recognize each other.

[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 1 points 3 weeks ago

https://vimeo.com/128427174

I don't know if the rest of that series is available, but there you go.