Exiled governments play a crucial role in long-standing national conflicts around the world. They have an enormous impact on transnational politics and the world order. First published in 1991, Governments-in-Exile in Contemporary World Politics examines the odd but pivotal place that governments-in-exile have in international politics.

In a variety of case studies and theoretical essays by eminent scholars, this volume deals with many volatile and news-making national situations—in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran, southwest Africa, Cambodia, Armenia, Ireland, among others—that span a range of geopolitical regions. It addresses diverse issues that are central to political science, such as: the limits of sovereignty; the role of host states; the elusive nature of representation in the absence of effective control over a home territory; international legitimation and recognition; governments-in-exile as political tools in the hands of their foreign patrons; and the actual and symbolic importance of governments-in-exile in the preservation of diasporic nations and cultures.

The book fills a unique place in the literature on international politics by covering and comparing a truly international range of cases of governments-in-exile.