I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country - Paperback

by Matt Qvortrup (Author)

Are you fed up with the divided and unequal society or suffocating laws and regulations of the country where you live? Ever dreamed of starting your own country or just want to understand how that happens? In this refreshing new book, Matt Qvortrup provides a step-by-step guide to forming an independent country, from organising a referendum and winning it, to receiving official international recognition, establishing a currency and even entering the Eurovision song contest.

The book delves into the legal, economic and political problems of creating new states, using historical examples and anecdotes from all over the world to illustrate the obstacles to these campaigns. Qvortrup recounts his globetrotting experiences as an expert consultant on referendums to give a no-nonsense explanation of the many hurdles and barriers, as well as the opportunities for those who want to break free.

Back Jacket

'Full of insight and rich detail, Matt Qvortrup's important new book provides an engaged and wonderfully engaging study of the passions and politics of state making.'
Alastair Bonnett, author of Off The Map and Beyond The Map

How do you create a new country? What steps do you need to take? How do you make a project management plan for secession and independence? In the past century more than one hundred new states have been established. As separatist movements and political parties from Scotland to Somaliland try to establish new nations, this unique and timely book offers a practical guide to creating a new country. If Machiavelli's The Prince provided a recipe for how to be a ruler in Renaissance Italy, this volume provides a clear and unsentimental step-by-step guide to making a new country in the twenty-first century.

Based on the author's personal experiences as a political advisor, I want to break free offers a practical guide for would-be creators of new states, outlining the legal, political and economic steps that need to be taken to make a new country.

This book is the first ever guide for those wishing to make a new state and for the choices they have to make: the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly.

Author Biography

Matt Qvortrup is Professor of Political Science at Coventry University