Microstate

This article deals with Microstate as it relates to NationStates. For more general information, see the Wikipedia article on this subject.

RW microstate of Malta. A BuzzFeed "reporter" became "accidentally almost famous" when she wrote a fantastically awful article about the island nation in 2014.

Microstates are geographically small countries which enjoy wide international recognition as sovereign states. Countries like Liechtenstein and Vatican City are probably the most common RW examples of this kind of state. In NationStates, many, if not a majority, of microstates are actually puppets of larger, more powerful states -- in particular, WA Puppets which allow the more established country to skirt WA mandates while retaining a vote in that body. There are usually very few complaints if a country elects to take advantage of this loophole in international law.

The characteristics of NS microstates are vast, varied and unpredictable. They could be as benign as a tiny island or atoll in the middle of the ocean, or as peculiar as a vast spaceship orbiting an inhabited planet. In many cases they are consular or government offices within a mother country's capital city -- but they could just as easily be an underground bunker where the nation's inter-dimensional WA elevator is located.

Other geographically small nations exist in the NS community that do not meet the qualifications to be microstates. These include micronations and unrecognized states. Micronations are typically small, but are rarely taken seriously by established countries and are not even "nations" according to the common definition of the term. (RW example: Sealand.) Unrecognized states do hold national characteristics, but most countries that matter do not recognize them. (RW example: Palestine.)