Invisible Countries

“Mr. Keating offers few answers, but he raises good questions. As secessionist movements flourish in Europe, and climate change threatens to obliterate littoral states, the issue of what it means to be a nation is acquiring new salience.”—The Economist

"As informative as it is readable. . . . A timely book."—Foreign Policy

"At its core, Invisible Countries is a book about how the drama of nation-building transforms and is transformed by the politics of the world stage."—Daniel Solomon, New Republic

“Keating offers a clear-eyed look into what it means to be a country today—in an age when it's become more difficult to forge new states—and how, increasingly, the notion of statehood is being challenged in unexpected ways. He mixes his historical and political investigation with intrepid reporting that centers those people who are navigating the apparent cracks along world borders.”—Pacific Standard

"Invisible Countries is a serious, indefatigable attempt to explore the vexing issue of national identity."--Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of Geography

"Invisible Countries takes its readers on an incredible journey to some of the world's most unlikely, fragile but determined would-be nations. It's also a wonderfully humane and urgent intellectual quest to find out why countries and borders still matter so much in our supposedly globalizing era."--Alastair Bonnett, author of Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies

"Through fascinating journeys to quasi-states and nations lacking UN membership, Keating deftly illustrates his case: we must remember our current set of countries are means to the good life, not ends in themselves."--Charles Kenny [either Senior Fellow, the Center for Global Development and/or author Getting Better: How Global Development is Succeeding].

"With sharp reporting and a far-flung sense of adventure, Joshua Keating provides an unprecedented examination of what it means to be a nation in the twenty-first century. You’ll never look at the world map the same way after reading this thought-provoking book.—Doug Mack, author of The Not-Quite States of America