ABSTRACT
Taiwan represents a puzzle for students of international relations. It has all the key ingredients of a state set out in the 1933 Montevideo Convention. First, it has a permanent population of over 23 million, which is larger than most countries in the United Nations. 1 Second, it has a defi ned territory that has not changed since the 1950s and is of almost the same size as the Netherlands. 2 Third, it does have a functioning, well-educated, meritocratic and multilayered government. And fourth, it has a range of government (including its Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and non-government agencies with the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Yet Taiwan has been excluded from the United Nations since 1971 and is only offi cially recognized by a dwindling number of minor players on the world stage. Since the loss of South African and South Korean recognition in the 1990s, Taiwan’s most prized remaining diplomatic allies are Panama and Paraguay. That failed states such as Somalia and Afghanistan or rogue states such as North Korea and Zimbabwe are part of the formal system of international relations centred on the United Nations, while Taiwan is shut out, is perplexing to outside observers and a source of great frustration for most Taiwanese.
