This paper explores the under-researched relationship between (lack of) sovereignty and citizenship in contested
states. By taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws upon politics, law and sociology, the paper investigates the establishment of institutional fixtures of statehood, nation-building, as well as political dynamics inclusion and exclusion in contested states. Through a comparative analysis of Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh and Taiwan, it examines the ways in which contested states actively perform statehood and citizenship to compensate for the sovereignty deficit. This paper has a two-fold aim: a) to shed light on the impact of internal and/or external statehood contestation on the scope of citizenship rights of citizens in contested states; and b) to show how citizenship is used as a tool for nation building and as a means of legitimising the state internally and externally. The paper argues that although statehood contestation and lack of sovereignty have a direct bearing on the scope of citizens’ rights, thus resulting in a type of “semi-citizenship”, nonetheless, contested states employ various novel and creative, formal or non-formal performative practices such as closer engagement without recognition, digital and public diplomacy campaigns aimed at increasing external presence and document recognition, in overcoming the sovereignty deficit.
