The IMS assessed the legitimacy of micronational claims in five categories—B ("bogus"), E ("extinct"), F ("fiction"), T ("traditional") and O ("other"); according to the IMS, only micronations rated T or O had good chances of achieving independence.[5] Owned by Lehmann and Christopher Martin, the IMS had offices in St. Louis, Missouri and King's Lynn, Norfolk, England.[4] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IMS was disestablished in 1988.[6]
History
The IMS was founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Lehmann IV of St. Louis, Missouri.[3][4] In 1977, documents from the IMS supposedly supporting the legitimacy of the Most Serene Federal Republic of Montmartre were used in a court case by Montmartre President Barry Alan Richmond to advocate for the micronation's inclusion in the phone directory of New York Telephone.[7] The IMS contributed its research to Erwin Strauss's 1979 How to Start Your Own Country about micronations.[8] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IMS was disestablished in 1988.[6]
Aftermath
In 1996, Swiss author Fabrice O'Driscoll of Aix-Marseille University founded the French Institute of Micropatrology (French: l'Institut français de micropatrologie) as an unofficial continuation of the IMS.[9][10] In 2000, O'Driscoll wrote the book Ils ne siègent pas à l'ONU: revue de quelques micro-Etats, micro-nations et autres entités éphémères (They don't sit at the UN: a review of some micro-states, micro-nations and other ephemeral entities), which details over 600 micronations.[11]
^Foucher-Dufoix, Valérie; Dufoix, Stéphane (February 2012). "La patrie peut-elle être virtuelle ?" [Can the homeland be virtual?]. Pardés (in French). 52. In Press: 57–75. Retrieved 6 January 2023 – via Cairn.info.
^Vieira, Fátima (2022). "Micronations and Hyperutopias". In Marks, Peter; Wagner-Lawlor, Jennifer A.; Vieira, Fátima (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. p. 282. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88654-7_22. ISBN978-3-030-88654-7.