In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity. Political geography is the field of Human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of Political processes and the ways in which A political division is a Term of art of Geography defining the concept of a geographic Region accepted to be in Frequently, a sovereign territory, the term is most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. A nation is a Human Cultural and Social Community. In as much as most members never meet each other yet feel a common bond it may be considered For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government.

In common usage, the term is used casually in the sense of both "nation" and "state". Definitions may vary. It is sometimes used to refer to both states and some other political entities. ^[1] while in some occasions it refers only to state. ^[2] It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison. ^[3]

There are non-sovereign territories (subnational entities, another form of political division or administrative division within a larger nation-state) which constitute cohesive geographical entities, some of which are former countries, but which are not sovereign states. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself Examples of administrative divisions English terms In many of the following terms corresponding to British cultural influence areas of relatively low mean population Some are designated as countries, others are not. The degree of autonomy and local government varies widely. Some are possessions of such states — as several states have overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from their own. Such dependencies are sometimes listed together with states on lists of countries. A dependent territory dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political Independence or Sovereignty as a ^[3]

See also

• Nation-state for the history of the development of the modern nation states
• List of countries
• Lists by country
• List of sovereign states
• List of international rankings
• Constituent Countries
• State
• Dependent area
• List of dependent territories
• List of subnational entities
• ISO 3166-1, list of countries and corresponding international standard codes
• Country calling codes, list of telephone prefixes
• List of country name etymologies
• List of enclaves and exclaves
• Territory
• Border

References

• Anderson, Benedict; 'Imagined Communities: Reflections On the origin and Spread of Nationalism'; London, Verso; 1991
• Viotti, Paul R. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy Wikipedia talkFeatured lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below -->This list of countries, arranged alphabetically See also Lists of countries This is a series of lists by country. This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. Country specific See:CategoryInternational rankings Economic IMD International: World Competitiveness Yearbook World Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. A dependent territory dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political Independence or Sovereignty as a A dependent territory dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political Independence or Sovereignty as a The table below indicates the types and where known numbers of Administrative divisions currently (as of 2007 used by countries and their major dependent territories Wikipedia talkFeatured lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below --> ISO 3166-1, as part of the ISO 3166 standard This is a list of country calling codes defined by ITU-T recommendation E This list covers English language country names with their etymologies. In Political geography, an enclave is a piece of land which is totally surrounded by a foreign territory and an exclave is one which is politically attached to a Types of administrative and/or political territories include Many types of legally administered territories, each of which is a non-sovereign geographic area Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions such as Governments States or subnational administrative and Kauppi, Mark V. ; 'International Relations and World Politics - Security, Economy, Identity'; Second Edition; New Jersey, Prentice Hall; 2001

External links

• List of countries List of countries in various formats (CSV, TXT, HTML) for use in databases and applications
• List of nationalities List of nationalities in various formats (CSV, TXT, HTML) for use in databases and applications
• Geography Site Country Profiles - Based on the CIA World Factbook
• How many countries are there?
• Demonyms - What do you call people from different countries?
• Library of Congress - Country Studies
• BBC Country Profiles
• The CIA World Factbook
• The US Department of State - Background Notes Facts and informations on countries, dependencies and areas of special sovereignty around the world
• Countries in 1900
• PopulationData.net
• United Nations statistics division
• United Nations eDocs Web Service XML data list of countries.
• United Nations - UNeDocs Code List Web Service