Aporetic States: On De Facto States and Sovereign Agency

Abstract

This chapter takes the ambivalent materialities of de facto states as a starting point for thinking about how to theorize life within them. Beginning with the flag of one de facto state, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the chapter unravels some of the paradoxes that shape the lives of such states’ citizens. In particular, it takes seriously the ways in which citizens of such de facto entities may have affective relationships with a ‘state’ whose reality they nevertheless call into question. The chapter develops the concept of the aporetic state to refer to such paradoxical entities, building on the particular meaning of aporia as an irresolvable logical contradiction. The chapter first discusses what the concept of the aporetic state contributes to understanding the everyday paradoxes or aporias of non-recognition. It then explains three types of aporetic paradoxes and discusses how attention to paradox can lead us to further conceptual clarity. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of sovereign agency, a concept which may help to conceptualize the sovereignty that many citizens of de facto states do not have but claim that they want.