These are the World's "Invisible" Countries

Published: July 13, 2018, 5:06 p.m.

Like me, my guest today Joshua Keating, loves maps. His new book "Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood" is about borders we see on maps and the borders we don't see. 

Josh Keating is a longtime foreign affairs journalist and now an editor at Slate. And in this book he takes readers to places that are not quite countries. This includes places like Abkhazia, Somaliland, the Akwesasne nation between New York and Ontario. He makes an argument that we are currently in a period of what he calls Cartographical stasis--that is, we are in an era in which not many new countries are being created, at least compared to other eras in recent history.  Though, he posits, this period may be coming to an end.  
 
I first go wind of Josh's new book when I read an article he wrote about a soccer tournament for countries that are not quite countries--think of it as the World Cup for quasi countries. And the book kicks off by referencing this tournament. So that is where we begin our conversation.