[alasdair_]

>I mean, you can take a plane to Taipei. It isn't subjective or unprovable: the ROC will check your passport. They issue the currency you will use to buy food. The police work for them. Taxes are collected, exclusively, by them.

The question of whether or not ISIS is therefore a country is left as an exercise for the reader.

[gataca]

They were a country for a period of time. They had passports and a currency. I don’t see how that disproves OP’s point

[1123581321]

It would be a better exercise to define a sovereign state first and then independently apply the test to Taiwan and IS. History is full of unpleasant governments.

[Aeolun]

I assume they were, but since most of the world was intent on squashing the country flat as a bug I doubt formal recognition would have done anything for them.

[qwerty456127]

Why wouldn't everybody recognize it as a country and declare it a war?