This comprehensive volume explores the ways in which recognised states and international organisations interact with secessionist 'de facto states', and analyses the issues and problems that this policy of 'engagement without recognition' inevitably raises. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

Eiki Berg is Professor of International Relations at the University of Tartu, Estonia.

James Ker-Lindsay is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

1. A Conceptual Framework for Engagement with de facto States James Ker-Lindsay and Eiki Berg 2. 'Statehood', 'de facto Authorities' and 'Occupation': Contested Concepts and the EU's Engagement in its European Neighbourhood Bruno Coppieters 3. The Stigmatisation of de facto States: Disapproval and 'Engagement without Recognition' James Ker-Lindsay 4. Recognition, Status Quo or Reintegration: Engagement with de facto States Nina Caspersen 5. Quest for Survival and Recognition: Insights into the Foreign Policy Endeavours of the Post-Soviet de facto States Eiki Berg and Kristel Vits 6. Regional Organizations and Secessionist Entities: Analysing Practices of the EU and the OSCE in Post-Soviet Protracted Conflict Areas Vera Axyonova and Andrea Gawrich 7. Sovereignty and Engagement without Recognition: Explaining the Failure of Conflict Resolution in Cyprus George Kyris