1. Nations - unlike other social groups - seek the right to govern themselves and determine their future development. 2. They seek - in other words - the right to selfdetermination. 3. Humanity paid a heavy price for re-organising boundaries in a way that culturally distinct communities could form separate nation-states. 4. In making this claim a nation seeks recognition and acceptance by the international community of its status as a distinct political entity or state. 5. Most often these claims come from people who have lived together on a given land for a long period of time and who have a sense of common identity.