Editing Microstate (section)

=== Qualitative ===
[[File:Panorama Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica and Gardens of Vatican City (39834994173).jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|[[Vatican City]], the smallest independent country in the world, with {{convert|0.49|km2|acre|abbr=on}}.]]
Some academics have suggested defining microstates according to the unique features that are linked to their geographic or demographic smallness.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Amstrup |first=Niels |date=June 1976 |title=The Perennial Problem of Small States: A Survey of Research Efforts |journal=Cooperation and Conflict |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=163–182 |doi=10.1177/001083677601100202 |issn=0010-8367}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |title=Small States in International Relations: Lilliputians in Gulliver's World? |date=May 2006 |publisher=University of Washington Press; University of Iceland Press |isbn=978-0-295-98524-4 |editor-last=Ingebritsen |editor-first=Christine |series=New directions in Scandinavian studies |location=Seattle : Reykjavik |publication-date=May 2006 |oclc=ocm63171147 |editor-last2=Neumann |editor-first2=Iver |editor-last3=Gstöhl |editor-first3=Sieglinde |editor-last4=Beyer |editor-first4=Jessica}}</ref> Newer approaches have proposed looking at the behaviour or capacity to operate in the international arena in order to determine which states should deserve the microstate label.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wivel |first1=Anders |last2=Oest |first2=Kajsa Ji Noe |date=September 2010 |title=Security, profit or shadow of the past? Explaining the security strategies of microstates |journal=Cambridge Review of International Affairs |language=en |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=429–453 |doi=10.1080/09557571.2010.484047 |issn=0955-7571}}</ref> Yet, it has been argued{{By whom|date=September 2020}} that such approaches could lead to either confusing microstates with weak states<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> (or [[failed states]]) or relying too much on subjective perceptions.<ref name=":1" />

An alternative approach is to define microstates as "modern protected states".<ref name=":1" /> According to the definition proposed by Dumienski (2014): "microstates are modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints."<ref name=":1" /> Adopting this approach permits limiting the number of microstates and separating them from both small states and autonomies or [[dependent territory|dependencies]].<ref name=":1" />

The smallest political unit recognized as a sovereign state is the [[Vatican City]], though [[legal status of the Holy See|its precise status]] is sometimes disputed, e.g., [[Maurice Mendelson]] argued in 1972 that "[i]n two respects it may be doubted whether the territorial entity, the Vatican City, meets the traditional criteria of statehood".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mendelson |first=M. H. |date=October 1972 |title=Diminutive States in the United Nations |journal=International and Comparative Law Quarterly |language=en |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=609–630 |doi=10.1093/iclqaj/21.4.609 |issn=0020-5893}}{{better source needed|This was published more than half a century ago, when Liechtenstein was not accepted to join the UN for instance.|date=February 2023}}</ref>
[[File:St.Kitts and Nevis -Two Islands One Paradise.jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|[[St. Kitts and Nevis]] in the [[Caribbean Sea]], the smallest independent country in the [[Americas]] with {{convert|261|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}.]]