How Many Nations Are There?

How many nations are there in the world? According to the number of members in the UN, there is 193 nations in the world. But depending who ask this number should be smaller or greater.

As an American the idea of being our own separate nation has been in our history since the founding of the 13 colonies. But what is the benefit of declaring your own nation if others won't recognize you. If they don't recognize you, what chance do you have to be taken seriously?

For a nation to be considered a nation and a full member of the UN does it need the recognition of all the other nations? No, for example the governments of North and South Korea do not recognize the other, The State of Israel is not recognized by 32 other UN members, and the People's Republic of China is not recognized as the sovereign ruler of China by 22 nations. All of these countries have full member ship, but not full recognition. 

However there are a fair amount of countries in the world that want to be recognized and have the ability to rule themselves. Good examples are the State of Palestine and the Republic of China or Taiwan. Fortunately for Palestine they have been excepted as an observer state in the UN, but Taiwan struggles to achieve the same status. Other nations face a similar problem of that of Taiwan (list of nations with limited recognition / Video). It is hard for these nations to gain support for their cause because they are under the rule of bigger and more influential countries, and if someone would want to take the side of the those who declare independence it would not go over well with the ones who have more influence on the world stage and don't want to loose land.

Personally I believe a nation becomes one if the people of region have created their own identity and do not identify or even want to associate themselves with the people or the country that rules them. If conflict and tensions between the groups rise, sometimes it is better to split up instead of trying to keep a falling relationship together and having it snowball into something bigger years later. It will be impossible for all the problems to disappear in one night. People will still hold old grudges and prejudices and will take time for things to be at peace. But who knows after the break up and years later the two can have a healthy relationship as being just friends.