As I'm sure most of you know, there really isn't a concrete answer to how many countries there are because geopolitics is a very complicated subject. Personally, I consider there to be 197. You have the 193 member states of the United Nations, the two observer states, Vatican City and Palestine making 195, but I would also consider Kosovo and Taiwan as well. So, Palestine is recognized by about 146 of the 193 member states. In order to be a full member state, a country needs to be recognized by five certain countries. China, Russia, France, United Kingdom, and United States. China and Russia recognize Palestine, but the other three do not. That may change sometime soon though as more and more countries have started to recognize Palestine recently. Such as Ireland, Spain, and Norway. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, though. The United States is Israel's biggest supporter, and Israel arguably wouldn't exist without the United Kingdom. 75% of the United Nations still recognize Palestine, though.
Vatican City is a pretty interesting case, actually. Commonly referred to as The Holy See when talking about it in the context of a country, it is the smallest country in the world in both area and population. In fact, it's a country inside of a city, that city being Rome in Italy. The Holy See's issue is not a lack of recognition from certain member states, rather they simply choose not to be a member state. Makes sense, I don't think The Pope would want to get involved in geopolitical issues all that much anyway. So... what about Taiwan and Kosovo? They aren't even observer states, why would I recognize them? Well, Kosovo has quite a bit of recognition among member states. 104 out of 193, or roughly 54% of the world recognizes Kosovo. Anyways, take other... "de facto" countries for example. Is de facto the right term? Oh well, I'm going with it. Anyways, you have Northern Cyprus which is only recognized by Turkey, Western Sahara being recognized by around 46 other countries, Abkhazia and South Ossetia only being recognized by five other countries. (Russia, Venezuela, Nauru, Syria, and Nicaragua.) so on and so forth.
Okay, then what about Taiwan? It's recognized by fewer countries than Western Sahara. Only 11. So why do I include it in my definition? I'm gonna be honest... I don't know. I was always taught Taiwan and Kosovo along with the UN member and observer states, I don't know where that came from if I can be honest. 197 countries, that is always what I have been taught. I never really thought to ask "Why do we include Taiwan and Kosovo in this definition if they aren't even member states of the UN?" Honestly, though? The United Nations' opinion on what is and isn't a country shouldn't matter. Define country however you want to, dude. I'm just going by what I've been taught. It's a very politically divisive topic that most people are not going to agree on, and that's okay. We all have different reasons for believing what we do. Perhaps Bhutan's definition is correct. They only recognize like fifty or so other countries, and they're doing pretty well for themselves as far as I'm aware. I don't know much about Bhutan actually. They're in the Himalayas and their flag has a dragon on it so I'm assuming they're pretty damn cool.
Song of the Day: Sham Rock - Tell Me Ma ☘️
Maybe there's only one country, and that's Ireland.
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