

Ask HN: How would you create a new (recognized by UN) nation? - simonebrunozzi


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eCa
Regarding 4: It seems difficult [1].

And also [2].

In short: Declaration of independece - easy. Recognition - not so much..

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations)

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simonebrunozzi
Imagine to have enough money to be able to buy a sizable chunk of land,
anywhere on earth. Imagine also that you wanted to create a nation from
scratch, and maybe invent a new crowd-sourced constitution, laws, etc. Assume
that great powers wouldn't see this as dangerous (otherwise, your story will
be very short). What would you do?

Sometimes I dream of owning an island and creating a new nation where rules
make sense and people live in relative harmony. I think such a world shouldn't
be too hard to design, but rather very hard to "bootstrap". I know it's only a
fantasy, but today I was wondering what would you do to create such a nation.

Thoughts I had so far:

1) pick an existing small nation and convince a faction to declare a
secession.

2) pick an existing small nation, become its president/ruler, and de facto
apply your new rules to a pre-existing nation.

3) 2) pick an existing small nation, become its president/ruler, and rule that
a chunk of the country will become a separate country alltogether.

4) Buy an abandoned island or offshore oil platform, and find a loophole in
the diplomacy system which will later allow you to declare your territory as
an independent nation.

5) Claim that a certain territory has sovereign status based on its past (e.g.
an Indian reserve in the US territory, possibly the example less likely to
succeed of all places).

6) A few other thoughts that I just abandoned as they are plain impossible.

~~~
notahacker
4) has already happened: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand Good
luck getting the UN to take your oil platform seriously though when they won't
recognise Somaliland (population 3.5M, far more viable as a state than Somalia
and not involved in any proxy disputes with Security Council members)

2 and 3 are the more standard route, but it's not so much "creating a new
nation from scratch" as trying to reform it in your own image. Judging by the
number of nations that owe a very large amount to one person or small group's
particular image, the notions of relative harmony and rules that make sense
vary quite considerably...

