Curiosities in Geopolitics
Interesting, lesser-known facts from geopolitics, war, diplomacy and international relations — each one sourced.
Territorial oddities
- 1278
Two heads of state, neither one Andorran
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Andorra's head of state is shared by two people at once: the Bishop of Urgell, in Spain, and the President of France. The arrangement dates back to a treaty signed in 1278 and still stands today.
- 1899
Land nobody wants
Source: Alastair Bonnett, Unruly Places (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)
Bir Tawil, a stretch of desert between Egypt and Sudan, is claimed by neither country. Conflicting borders drawn in 1899 and 1902 mean that claiming Bir Tawil would force whichever government claims it to give up a much more valuable neighbouring territory — so both leave it alone.
- 1920
A visa-free Arctic
Source: Storting, the Norwegian Parliament
Under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, citizens of any signatory nation can live and work on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard without a visa, even though it belongs to Norway.
- 1967
A country on an old gun platform
Source: CBS News
Since 1967, a family has occupied an abandoned World War II anti-aircraft fort in the North Sea and declared it the sovereign Principality of Sealand. No country recognises it.
- 1973–2022
The Whisky War
Source: National Geographic
For almost fifty years, Canada and Denmark's only dispute over a barren Arctic island was settled not with weapons, but by each side leaving a bottle of liquor and a flag whenever they visited. The dispute was finally resolved in 2022 by splitting the island in two.
- 1991
Russia, cut off from Russia
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Kaliningrad, a Russian region on the Baltic coast, has been physically separated from the rest of Russia by Poland and Lithuania since 1991.
Wars and disputes
- 1859
One casualty: a pig
Source: HistoryLink.org
In 1859, the United States and Britain came close to war over a disputed island, after an American farmer shot a British-owned pig for eating his potatoes. Over a decade of standoff followed, but the pig remained the only casualty.
- 1896
The shortest war in history
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica; Guinness World Records
In 1896, Britain and the Sultanate of Zanzibar fought a war that lasted under forty minutes — the shortest war ever recorded.
- 1939–40
Named as an insult
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
The improvised firebomb known as the Molotov cocktail got its name from Finnish soldiers mocking Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov during the 1939–40 Winter War.
- 1953
Still, technically, at war
Source: CNN
Fighting in the Korean War stopped in 1953, but only with an armistice, not a peace treaty. North and South Korea remain, on paper, still at war more than seventy years later.
- 1958–76
Won without a single death in combat
Source: Atlas Obscura
Between 1958 and 1976, Iceland and Britain fought three rounds of the “Cod Wars” over fishing rights, ramming each other's ships and cutting nets. Iceland won every round.
- 2001
Invoked exactly once
Source: History.com
NATO's collective-defence clause, the foundation of the entire alliance, has only ever been formally invoked once in its history: after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, not once during the Cold War.
Sovereignty and international law
- 1830s–1900s
A rivalry with no formal war
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
For most of the nineteenth century, the British and Russian Empires fought an entire shadow conflict over Central Asia — espionage, proxy wars, diplomatic manoeuvring — without their armies ever directly fighting each other at scale.
- 1856
Demilitarised before its country existed
Source: Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs
The Åland Islands have been demilitarised since 1856 — decades before Finland, the country they now belong to, even existed as an independent state.
- 1947–54
A country that lasted seven years
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
After the Second World War, Trieste and its surrounding area existed as its own United Nations-administered territory, with its own flag and government, before being split between Italy and Yugoslavia in 1954.
- 1959
A continent with no owner
Source: Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
Antarctica belongs to no country. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty suspended every territorial claim on the continent, and none has been recognised since.
- 1964
Smallest country, biggest exception
Source: United Nations
Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world, yet it has never joined the United Nations. The Holy See has instead held permanent observer status since 1964.
Money and consequences
- 1980s
From richest to bankrupt in a generation
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Phosphate mining briefly made the tiny Pacific island of Nauru one of the wealthiest countries on Earth per capita. By the early 2000s, with the phosphate exhausted, it was nearly bankrupt.