What's a nation-state?

Far from evident.

...How many countries are there in the world? The question is not as simple as it seems. The United Nations claims 191 members, the United States Department of State supposes 192 independent countries, while the C.I.A. World Factbook spreads its net even further by suggesting 268 nations, dependent areas, and other entities. But leaving aside whether territories or colonies such as Puerto Rico or Bermuda should be included (not to mention the political status of such “non-countries” as Palestine, Tibet, and Taiwan) there are a vast number of claims from other, less well-known nations asserting their independent status.

Call them micro-nations, model countries, ephemeral states, or new country projects, the world is surprisingly full of entities that display all the trappings of established independent states, yet garner none of the respect. The Republic of Counani, Furstentum Castellania, Palmyra, the Hutt River Province, and the Empire of Randania may sound fantastical, but they are a far cry from authorial inventions, like C.S. Lewis’s Narnia or Swift’s Laputa. For while uncertain territories like the Realm of Redonda might not be locatable in your atlas, they do claim a very genuine existence in reality, maintaining geographical boundaries, flaunting governmental structures, and displaying the ultimate necessity for any new nation: flags. Admittedly they may be little more than loose threads on the patchwork of nations, but these micro-nations offer their founders a much sought-after prize—sovereignty....

On really a rather unrelated note, if you ever chance upon a cheap copy of the otherwise pricey book, Codex Seraphinianus, buy it. I have a copy I got many years ago as a first American edition. A newer edition has a preface by Italo Calvino (read also Calvino's magnificent If On a Winter's Night, A Traveler and his Invisible Cities). The Codex is a masterpiece of creative madness - a creation of a non-existent language and world, detailing its people, flora, and fauna, its technologies, and its customs. Unfortunately, the book's cause has been taken up by occultists, thus bleeding some of the childlike life from it.