Startup States Society launches guide to lawfully founding a new country

The Geneva-based Startup States Society has launched HowToStartANewCountry.com, an educational resource aimed at founders, academics, lawyers and governments exploring peaceful new state formation. The site argues that new countries can be created on dry land through negotiation and consent, not secession or speculative models like seasteading or blockchain states.

Why it matters: - The Startup States Society is trying to move new-country formation from fringe idea to legal process. - The resource targets governments, lawyers, academics and founders looking for a peaceful route to statehood under public international law. - The Society frames the approach as a way to turn underused land into revenue-generating, self-governing territory without war, secession or territorial loss.

What happened: - The Startup States Society, a Swiss Verein based in Geneva, launched HowToStartANewCountry.com, an educational site focused on how to start a new country lawfully and peacefully. - Julien Andrew Starr, the Society's founding director, said the site consolidates the organization's research into a one-stop resource. - The launch was announced July 7, 2026.

The details: - The Society says the workable path to new state formation runs through dry land and negotiation with an existing government. - The site rejects high seas, outer space, Antarctica, disputed borders and blockchain ledgers as viable bases for statehood. - The Society notes that the high seas lack territorial jurisdiction under the law of the sea. - The Society points to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty as blocking national appropriation of outer space. - The Society cites the 1959 Antarctic Treaty as freezing new territorial claims in Antarctica. - The Society argues that disputed territory cannot solve the title problem because title is already contested. - The Society says a blockchain or cloud-based nation has no territory, and territory is required for statehood. - The Society describes international law as split between the declaratory theory, which focuses on defined territory, permanent population, effective government and capacity for foreign relations, and the constitutive theory, which centers on recognition by other states. - The Society also distinguishes dominium, or title to land, from imperium, or authority to govern it. - The Society says a long-term lease can separate dominium from imperium, leaving the existing state with title while the new state governs the territory. - The Society says a condominium arrangement can instead create joint exercise of imperium. - The Society says these structures avoid secession because no territory changes hands. - The clearest use case, the Society says, is remote or thinly populated land that is underperforming or costing the state money. - Under the Society's Consensual Theory of Statehood, that land could become a self-governing jurisdiction generating rent, indemnities and revenue. - For an existing UN member state, the Society says the arrangement would make the government a landlord rather than a governor while preserving underlying title. - The Society says the government could also collect rent, indemnities and potentially dividend-paying preferred shares in the new state's economy. - The Society says the model could raise revenue without higher taxes or new debt. - The Society says its research appears in two monographs by Starr, Startup States and How to Build New Countries, both available on Zenodo. - The Society says it welcomes contact from founders, academics, legal professionals and governments interested in exploring the model. - The announcement includes public social links on LinkedIn, X and Telegram.

Between the lines: - The Society is not just promoting a concept; it is packaging a legal and governance framework around a highly unconventional outcome. - The pitch turns state formation into a negotiated transaction, which could appeal to jurisdictions seeking cash flow from unused land. - The framing also suggests the Society wants to position new-country formation as a niche field for legal scholarship, not a speculative internet project.

What's next: - The Society says it wants discreet dialogue with governments that may be willing to host a new country through negotiation. - The organization is also seeking more founders, academics and legal professionals to join its network and use its research. - Further development will likely depend on whether any government is willing to test the model in practice.