Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Benes Decrees Still Making Diplomatic Waves

The UN has 192 member nations but there are still countries out there that are either unrecognized or only partially recognized. The number of unrecognized countries is surprising small. There are some rebel breakaway regions in the Caucasus or in the Western Sahara and Somaliland. There are some non state regions that are a product of international efforts for "peace", like Kosovo and Arab occupied Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Taiwan isn't recognized by the same countries that recognize Communist China. There is mutual nonrecognition by the 2 Koreas and their closest friends and allies. The Turks are occupying northern Cyprus and have set up a puppet government. These are all semi-familiar international disputes.

When the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed many of the last unresolved issues of WWII were settled. I was wrong. the Duchy of Liechtenstein has a long standing dispute with Czech and Slovakia dating back to when Czechoslovakia, as a consequence of the Benes Decrees, seized some property of the late Duke of Liechtenstein.

I know this old news.

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