There are so many countries in the world - regions identified as distinct entities
I know I read once how many there were but I lost track, do you know?
Yes there are a lot.  Sometimes it refers to sovereign states and political entities while at other times just the state
Oh okay so how do you tell the difference then? Or you just know by memory?
I am not sure but international law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, certain land, and one government
oh okay, but do you know anything about the process regarding that? And what if a state wants to recede?
I am not sure.  Some federated states are part of a union and only have partial sovereignty but others are whole countries
Oh okay the whole situation seems really complicated.
or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union. A federated state is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. (Compare confederacies or confederations such as Switzerland.) Such states differ from sovereign states in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government.
One can commonly and sometimes readily (but not necessarily usefully) classify states according to their apparent make-up or focus. The concept of the nation-
glamour bits. They were there the whole time in the trenches."
Added Hurley: "I've been on film sets for about nine years as a hired hand so it wasn't that I didn't know anything... Yes, there are things I know now that I didn't know before. But there are things a monkey could learn to do... I think learning to keep on top of things ... You have to, sort of, learn that as you go. I hadn't realized how fragile a