There are places out there that exist – in the International Relations sense of the word – only in the eyes of their people.

That is, all of the states on the planet it recognises as sovereign except for the Vatican City.Īsk others and they’ll tell you that their homeland, their “nation”, deserves recognition. But it’s not – the answer wholly depends on who you ask.Īsk the United Nations for instance, and they’ll tell you there are 193. You’d think the question “How many countries are there in the world?” would be an easy one to answer.