When is a country recognized as a sovereign state?

Question

In past years we have heard a lot about statehood of Palestine, and that got me wondering when a state actually becomes recognized. If you look at the Wikipedia entry for the State of Palestine it states that it is a “partially recognized state”. So why is it exactly that we (in the West at least) don’t consider Palestine a sovereign state? I have had a couple of thoughts on the matter, but couldn’t draw any real conclusions:

1. It is not recognized by enough countries. I guess this could be a valid reason, although it is currently recognized by just over 70% of all nations, which seem pretty decent. In comparison, Israel itself is recognized by 83%, yet it’s sovereignty is never really questioned by the international community.
2. It is not a full member of United Nations. This also seems to be an uncertain argument, since there have been plenty of non-member sovereign countries since the foundation of UN. Even today, Vatican has the same observer-status as Palestine, and it is considered a sovereign state.
3. It is not recognized by the major players, mainly United States, Great Britain, etc. I suspect this might be the real reason, although I doubt it complies by any international law.
4. Some combination of all of above.

PS. I realize that statehood of Palestine is a controversial subject, so please keep a civil and objective tone. This is a Q&A site, not a discussion board. I am not interested in your political views, merely the technical aspect of statehood of countries.

So to clarify, the question is not about Palestine in particular. I am merely using it as the most obvious example we have today.

PPS. Please correct me if I am using the wrong terminology here. Perhaps there should have made a better differentiation between sovereignty, independence and statehood.

Answer 1

There is no commonly accepted definition. Every government decides for themselves which other states they recognize. Often these are not objective criteria (defined territory, permanent population, functioning government etc.) but rather political considerations.

A good example are North- and South-Korea which the whole world recognizes as clearly two separate states, while both Korean governments claim that the other is illegitimate and they alone represent all of Korea.

So if you want to know why your government does or does not recognize certain states, you need to look at their individual reasoning.

In the case of Palestine, the state which has the most direct interest in there not being a recognized Palestinian state is Israel. The situation is complicated and I don't want to reiterate it all, but let's just say that Israel would rather not have a recognized state of Palestine as a neighbor. Many Western countries are close allies of Israel. As such many Western politicians often share the Israelian position to not recognize Palestine as a state.

Answer 2

A group is a country and a sovereign state when two conditions are met

1. It acts like a sovereign state
2. Other countries treat it as a sovereign state.

Condition 1 means that there is a substantial group of people living in some region with de-facto borders and some sort of organisation or government that is able to determine and enforce the laws within those borders.

Condition 2 means that other countries either formally recognise your existence as a state, or treat your existence as a matter to be negotiated or decided by war.

Now there are lots of shades of statehood. I'll consider some case studies:

Palestinian territory has borders and an administration, but is not able to, for example, prevent Israeli settlements. It isn't able to determine its own rules. It has recognition from some states, but not all, and not the most powerful.

Israel has borders and an administration. It can enforce the law throughout much of its claimed territory. It has a powerful military that is able to defend it's borders. Other states either formally recognise it, or see it as a military enemy. Other states are not able to enforce their laws within the de-facto borders of Israel

Taiwan has well defined de-facto borders (even if these don't match the borders claimed by the government) and is able to enforce its laws within the de facto borders. It doesn't have much formal recognition, but other states deal with it as if were a country, for the sake of trade etc.

Sealand does not have a substantial land claim or population. Other countries do not treat it as a country.

Somalia in the 90s and 00s The region controlled by the government was very small, perhaps only a few neighbourhoods in the capital. It was not able to enforce its laws. It was called a "failed state" since there was no group able to be recognisable government.

Daesh in 2015 Controlled land with fairly well defined de-facto borders. Within their territory they were able to enforce their laws, and other countries treated them as a military enemy. However they had no formal recognition.

Scotland, Catalonia etc. Have some ability to self-determine, but this is subject to another state, they have effectively no recognition as sovereign states.

Native American lands and reservations Have some independence, but again are subject to US oversight. They are not recognized internationally as sovereign.

African Americans Do not have a region that they control nor a government or other organisation that is capable of determining and enforcing the law. There is no recognition of an African American state.

Of these, Israel is generally considered to be a sovereign state. The Palestinian territories, Taiwan, Daesh, and Somalia had some features of sovereign states, but incomplete in some ways. The others would not generally be considered to be sovereign states.

New states come about through a couple of routes: Military action, or through the fission or fusion of existing states.