Countries With No Land Borders

That would mean a large post! In brief, I look for a national identity, declared borders, at least some degree of international recognition, and operation as a country independent of the influence of other countries. It's still not black-and-white, though - for example, New Zealand is responsible for the defense of both Samoa and Cook Islands under differing arrangements; Kosovo and Palestine are recognised by 108 and 135 countries respectively; Vatican City is not a full member of the UN; Cyprus and Georgia don't control their own borders due to self-declared and border-maintained republics within them, while Palestine is occupied over most of the West Bank although the occupier has not declared a nation there. So, out of that lot, which would you count as a country and which not? In the end, it's a judgement call, and I'm happy with the 1-204 list of countries that looks to me like they all have a sufficient assertion of nationhood to be called "countries".

To wrap, I could talk more about the likes of Curaçao (interestingly it has more people than 13 countries that appear in the Countries of the World quiz) and Greenland, but I'm trying to keep this brief. The main thing is that I'd hope that people really research these places for themselves, and come to their own conclusions, rather than just saying that X is a country and Y is not, just because other people say so. I also would expect others to respect the conclusions I've come to, because whether you agree with the list or not, there is at least an arguable case for the inclusion of every answer.

If you do some more research you'll answer your own question.