Join us for our next event! An evening with writer Philip Dröge about Moresnet, concert pianist and Soviet expert Sara Crombach about Nagorno-Karabakh and Ecuadorian artist Oscar Santillan about Bermeja Island. Frictional states & bouncing borders, live at De Roode Bioscoop in Amsterdam, March 18.

The pictures of our second event are now online! It was a great evening, with interviews, presentations and inspiring stories. Thank you all for joining us and hopefully see you again at our next event in De Roode Bioscoop (Amsterdam).

In the effort to elucidate and understand de facto states, the University of Tartu (Estonia) recently founded the De Facto State Research Unit. From Somaliland to Transnistria and everywhere in between, their goal is to uncover these hidden spots that may turn out unexpectedly influential in world politics. Director Eiki Berg and his team are dedicated to producing innovative scholarship in the developing field of de facto state research.

De Facto was hosted by the Dutch radio show Bureau Buitenland to tell about our passion for stamps, frictional states and curious borders.

Forty-eight years ago today, millionaire Michael J. Oliver declared the independence of the Republic of Minerva, hoping that the small island reclaimed from the sea would ‘one day attract a population of thirty thousand’.

CONIFA, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations, just announced the teams that have qualified for the World Football Cup in North Macedonia, June 2020. Teams from places like Metabeleland, Kabylia, Panjab, Cascadia and the Chagos Islands are overlooked by FIFA and will get a chance to win their place on a global stage in this alternative tournament.

These days, Baarle Hertog is highly popular among the Dutch. While they are only allowed to buy fireworks from the 28th of December in their own country, in Belgium they can buy crackers all year round. As a result, the small border town is plagued with long cues and traffic jams - but for the local businesses, it is heyday.

Zooks! Already 40 years ago this micronation was launched. Covering no less then eight provinces and a piece of Antarctica.

On this day, 28 years ago, the South Ossetian parliament voted for full independence from Georgia. Still, its borders remain unrecognized. If you manage to cross them, however, you will find amazing nature and hospitable people.

The South Pacific region of Bougainville voted overwhelmingly to become the world’s newest nation by gaining independence from Papua New Guinea. More than 98% of valid ballots favored independence.

With its overt campaign to reduce the number of countries that recognize Kosovo as an independent state, Serbia has provoked the wrath of its neighbour. The battle intensifies.

Sniper fire and clashes have become rare on the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In a year that has seen positive steps to mitigate the decades-old conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, this photo essay illustrates how some Armenian front-line villagers’ lives have slowly improved.

The World Football Cup 2020 for de facto states and minority peoples will be held in Skopje, North Macedonia. The tournament will consist of 16 teams; the qualification period ends in December 2019. The event will take place from 30 May-7 June 2020.

On November 23, residents of the remote archipelago of Bougainville will decide about their future. This referendum about independence has been 20 years in the making.

What happens when all the ice melts and Antarctica is colonized? Browse through the archive of the future: scenarios, interviews, diary entries—all sort of stories that take place in Antarctica after the year 2119. The literary website Project Antarctica was presented on November 21 in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam.

De Facto selected 1982, a documentary on the mechanisms of propaganda during the Falklands War. In 1982, when the Argentine military dictatorship invaded the Falkland Islands, the government left no stone unturned in using propaganda to convince the people of the righteousness of their mission.

On November 14, 2019, we launched our platform about Frictional States & Bouncing Borders. It was a great evening, with interviews, presentations and inspiring stories. Thank you all for joining us!

The new shirt of FC Barcelona is an ode to the Senyera, the flag of Catalonia, thereby making a political statement to support the independence movement.

The war is essentially over in eastern Ukraine, but peace hasn’t yet begun. A visit to the self-proclaimed mini-state known as the People’s Republic of Luhansk shows that the road back to normality is long and full of obstacles. A story by Christian Esch, images from Emily Ducke.

Have a look at the project by the Dutch artist Vibeke Mascini that aims to reunite the two ‘summits’ that have been expropriated from Mont Blanc—during the first ascend in 1786 and the second in 1787, after being kept in different European museum collections for centuries, both far away from the mountain itself.

From a one-story house with mustard-colored walls off a bustling road in Mauritius, Olivier Bancoult is defying the U.K. by plotting a return to the tiny tropical island where he was born.

She is a separatist from Barcelona, he is a unionist, born in Madrid. A portrait of a marriage that cracks under the Catalan crisis. (Article in Dutch)

Dutch journalist Koen Greven enters behind the scenes of the strive for independence in Catalonia.

Eighteen years ago Travis McHenry claimed this chunck of Antarctica. And he named himself Grand Duke.

‘Vlora Citaku is still a citizen of the Republic of Serbia’, said Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic about Kosovo’s ambassador to the US, Vlora Citaku, at a UN Security Council meeting in New York.

Happy Halloween from the Republic of Molossia!

BRITAIN’S new aircraft carrier,HMS Queen Elizabeth, will make her maiden operational deployment as part of a joint US-Dutch-UK naval mission to the South China Sea in 2021.

Nine separatist leaders were jailed on 14 October 2019 by Spain’s Supreme Court for between nine and 13 years after being convicted of sedition. The days that followed saw some of the worst violence in the history of the modern independence movement.

Soldiers and civilians killed on both sides as India and Pakistan blame each other.

Malaysian censors have ordered a scene to be cut from DreamWorks film Abominable before it is screened there—because of a brief glimpse of a map.

Always been curious what happens up North?

Many boys from Morocco try to reach the European continent through the Spanish exclave Melilla. A search for these boys and their dreams in Fez, Melilla, Brussels and the Dutch city of Heerhugowaard. ‘In Europe, you can get 2000 euros a month. I want that too.’ (Article in Dutch)