Joshua Keating and Isaac Chotiner Live in San Francisco

What is a country? While certain basic criteria—borders, a government, and recognition from other countries—seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating’s book, Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood, explores exceptions to these rules, including self-proclaimed countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somaliland, a Mohawk reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border, and an island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change. Tying history to incisive observations drawn from interviews with residents, political leaders, and scholars, Keating provides a thoughtful analysis of how the world’s borders came to be, what the future may hold, and why we may be emerging from a lengthy period of “cartographical stasis.” Join Slate for an evening of conversation with Isaac Chotiner, writer and host of Slate’s “I Have to Ask” podcast and author Joshua Keating to discuss the release of his first book.

Joshua Keating is a foreign policy analyst, staff writer, and editor at Slate. Previously he was an editor at Foreign Policy. His work has also been published by the Washington Post, Politico, Smithsonian Magazine, and Roads & Kingdoms, and he has been featured as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the BBC, and Al-Jazeera.

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