Lecture
Sub State Recognition: The Politics of State Recognition from Below
- Date
- Tuesday 21 October 2025
- Time
- Serie
- Diplomacy and Global Affairs Research Seminar Series 2025
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.48
About the event
Dr. Ramesh Ganohariti will present his new book, co-authored with Dr. Gëzim Visoka, entitled Sub-State Recognition: The Politics of Recognition from Below. This work explores how the phenomenon of sub-state recognition is rising in international relations—when regions, cities, or local governments recognise or support entities seeking independence. Using original data, Dr. Ganohariti and Dr. Visoka illustrate how this practice reshapes diplomacy from the bottom up, challenging the traditional state-centric recognition regime. They argue that sub-state recognition serves both aspirant states, by compensating for their lack of sovereignty, and sub-state actors, by strengthening their foreign policy identity and autonomy, and while it does not legally establish statehood, it can be a powerful symbolic step towards broader recognition. This new perspective expands our understanding of recognition, showing that pathways to diplomatic legitimacy are far more decentralised than commonly assumed.
About the speakers
Dr. Ramesh Ganohariti is a lecturer in Research Methods at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. His research focuses on sovereignty and contested statehood, citizenship and statelessness, human security and politics of belonging, with a regional focus on the former Soviet space.
Dr. Gëzim Visoka is the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. His research focuses on statehood and state recognition, and post-conflict peacebuilding and statebuilding.
Registration
Participation is free, but registration is required. Please note: this is an English-language event.
Apply hereDiplomacy and Global Affairs (DGA) Research Seminar
The Diplomacy and Global Affairs (DGA) Research Seminar is a series launched by the Research Group on Diplomacy and Global Affairs at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. The seminars of internationally acknowledged guest researchers and faculty members deal with current research topics in diplomacy, international relations, global affairs, and political economy broadly conceived and target a broad audience through their interdisciplinary focus.
If you have any questions, please contact Arash Pourebrahimi.