Governing Away - BBC Radio 4, 11am Monday 22nd February

19th February 2010

Clive Anderson examines one of the strangest corners of international politics: governments and rulers in exile - a paradoxical area of international relations and international law.

The programme takes examples from the entire world map, from the serious to the apparently ridiculous and tackles them with political sensitivity, a dash of legal rigor and some philosophical playfulness.

The relationship between state, territory and sovereignty is not always what it seems. In Toronto, a Belarusian government holds court. Their version of Belarus existed for 9 months in 1918 before being assimilated by the Soviet Union. Now Belarus is independent, is there any reason for their continued existence? The Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, is in Rockville, Maryland USA, consisting of MPs elected in 1990 but barred from power by the military. We also feature crowns-in-exile King Constantine II of Greece and Prince Ermias Halie Selassie of Ethiopia. 

Where to draw the line between delusion and a realistic chance of getting reinstalled? How do governments in exile spend their days? How can they achieve recognition? Meanwhile, a government with nothing to govern, a ruler with nothing to rule, is never far away.  Mixing a degree of the surreal with questions on the limits of international relations, Clive engages his cast in this offbeat and thought-provoking political feature.

Producer: Simon Hollis