How to Start Your Own Country

by Erwin S. Strauss

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Law, Reference, History

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

American author.

Strauss is well-known for his science fiction fandom, his libertarian leaning and his efforts in the filk music scene.

He was an early (1964) vice president of the MIT Science Fiction Society. In addition, he is the author of the monthly "SF Convention Calendar" in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.

Reviews

[Paul Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Law, including the law of nations, rests on very practical grounds. How do you start your own country? Find a geographic area no one cares about (like an abandoned sea platform). Live off the grid. Mint money, make stamps, draft proclamations. Don't wait for anyone to recognize you -- you have to take nationhood. An enjoyable book mainly for its novelty value and history of micro-nations. But also a useful reminder that every sovereign state begins as a state of mind.

[PMP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic passage: "The details of obtaining and deploying weapons of mass detruction are beyond the scope of this book. They are covered in my book _Basement Nukes_ and the United States government publication _Superviolence_.... Such weapons should be planted in likely target areas for remote detonation, as well as stocked in the new country and its immediate vicinity and other locations throughout the world where they will be difficult for enemies to locate, but available in case of need."

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has in the past participated in efforts at encouraging the development of micro nations [1], Strauss brings personal experience that many others are lacking concerning the struggle that people face in establishing their own sovereignty in the international realm. This problem of legitimacy [2] that affects even larger nations with long established claims for statehood is even more critical for smaller realms without a historical and cultural tradition and without the means to defend themselves from the military forces of states like Vanuatu or Tonga in preserving some sort of independent hold over land. The club of nations is an exclusive one, too exclusive even for many state that have very strong claims for nationhood [3], and most independent efforts face immense difficulties and surviving in the face of the pressure of states to preserve their hold over increasing claimed territories, including uninhabited atolls and sand bars. The experience that the author has in these problems gives this book an admirable sense of realism that adds a sense of cynical realism to the idealism that is often involved in state building efforts.

Imagining one’s own ideal state is a hobby in Western civilization that goes back at least to Plato’s Republic, and the libertarian ideal of everyone doing what was right in their own eyes was decried as far back as the book of Judges, so it should not be assumed that either of these phenomenons are simply contemporary in nature, although it must be admitted that this book focuses mostly on history that is relatively recent to its creation, as this book was first published in 1979 and the edition read dates from 1999. The contents of this book are divided into several unequally sized chapters, beginning with the call of the horizon and the longing to be free from contemporary unjust political orders. The author provides five different approaches to establishing sovereignty to a would-be new country: seeking to gain legitimacy through efforts at establishing traditional sovereignty, running a ship under a flag of convenience from a nation like Liberia or Sierra Leone, pursuing statehood through litigation, the vonu approach in seeking to establish communities out of sight and out of mind living off the land and keeping a low profile, and establishing a model country that nonetheless still pays taxes as tribute to the nations that they are critiquing through their existence. The author then briefly discusses internal organization (constitution-making [4]) and attracting settlers and examining the difficulties faced for the endurance of new nations. Roughly two-thirds of the book is devoted to providing a detailed and alphabetically organized selection of case histories of previous and current efforts at state building, the vast majority of which are defunct, before providing some likely out of date information for further reading and communication.

The greatest appeal of this book is that it both gives some reasons why there are so many efforts at new nations and why these efforts face such difficult problems. For one, most nations apart from the United States, Great Britain, and other Anglo-Saxon nations are often far less tolerant of the micronational efforts among their citizens. For another, many nations prefer to deal with rogues whose behavior is predictable as opposed to idealists who are much less so and whose actions are a direct critique upon the club of nations that they are a part of. The book even has the air of prophecy, in that it discusses places in the United States, like Eastern Oregon, where the struggle between communities who wish to be left alone by the government and an increasingly intrusive government have come into violent disagreement. Although the information in this book is out of date, and the general tone of the book is grimly realistic to the point of view of being immensely cynical, this is a book that injects a dose of harsh reality into the often starry-eyed dreams of visionaries establishing their own realms where they are monarchs and rulers and subject to no will apart from their own, even if it makes it hard to attract enough people to make a realm viable or provokes disputes among factions and cliques over the organization of society before the logistics have been taken care of. For those who wish to ponder the reality of nation building, this book is a classic work, worthy of being read, containing a great deal of conceptual help as well as a grounding in realpolitik. Given the large number of people I know who enjoy engaging in this sort of nation-building, the potential audience for this book is somewhat large.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[3] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[4] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a real How-To book, but I read it for fun and writing research. As a kid I always wondered how countries got started and why people don't just start their own countries if they don't like the one they're in. Now I know. Other countries won't take you seriously unless you can either a) make them lots of money or b) have the know how to blow them off the map.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

essential reading - indeed, a great book to have in your library.
Humorous, but informative - live the dream.....

[Geoff Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

This quirky little tome explains how to launch a new nation and also why it is generally a terrible idea to do so. The case histories are fascinating. I would love to read more about some of these ill-fated attempts at sovereignty and the curious characters behind them.

[Vincent Houghtaling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big part of this book is a list of very low-information examples with two or three more fleshed-out case studies hidden inside. Still fun to think about.

[Matt Ely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to the concept of the book, but it kind of fell short. The biggest issue is just how irrelevant it all is, being about thirty years old. I admit, though, that it's not the book's fault.

What is the book's fault is the way the author uses sources. His tone is so deeply in favor of micro nations that most of his sources are those published by these groups themselves. In addition, he puts a lot of emphasis on just how available he is to help out with anyone wanting to start one of these projects.

There's a lot of extraneous material here. He emphasizes, in a lot of detail, just how one would utilize nuclear warheads were one to use them to declare independence. It's one of many things that are outside the experience of any actual micro nation. He also includes details on lots of groups about which there is almost no information. It's hard to tell what's important.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found out about this book from Cecil Adams (the Straight Dope). The concept is a good idea, but the book was sort of disappointing. Strauss' writing is wry at times, but he doesn't give much insightful or practical advice that you couldn't have deduced on your own. His gratuitous cross referencing becomes grating after a while: it feels like a quarter of the word count of this book is taken up by headings like "ANACHRONISM, SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE - see CREATIVE ANACHRONISM, SOCIETY FOR."

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I'm proud I'm living 25 km away from our own attempt in 1918 - Republic of Perloya (not mentioned). Not including our country's long resistance against Soviets and anyway troubled history.

For more practical purposes, you can relatively easy become just a "citizen without country", and in that case you just use offshore companies to avoid or not to avoid (your decision) taxes without much trouble with own country. Also it is very cheap.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part could be a more structured and less about acquiring weapons of mass-destruction. The case examples section is an interesting read although dated it gives a good view of motives for trying to establish new states: financial gains, libertarianism, wanting to live unbothered.
Nowadays the vonu approach isn't really seen as microstatism.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would've given this book more stars but at its heart it's short on precise description which limits understanding. The best part came from the various examples of self professed countries in these recent times.

[Sam]

Very forward thinking and many sharp minded entrepreneurs need to read!!