What is a state in anarchy?

Answer 1

In terms of the definition, a state in anarchy is a state in which there is no recognized government ruling over the people and people self-organize and defend. There is currently no region of the world in anarchy. The closest the world has to anarchy is the current situations in Somalia, Bir Tawil, and Antarctica.

Somalia comes close because the national government cannot extend its power to the entire territory, which has innumerable local warlords. However, the presence of these warlords serves to be a form of recognized government, which is why Somalia is more properly classified as a failed state (a state where the national government cannot compete with local warlords to the extent that the local warlords control more than the national government).

Bir Tawil comes close because both Egypt and Sudan reject the territory as not belonging to either of them and the territory is the only land on the six inhabited continents to have terra nullius status. However, as Bir Tawil has no settled population, it fails the requirement of having people in the territory to be an anarchy.

Antarctica has no permanent population and has its government arrangements taken care of by international treaties, so while there is no government over the people who are currently living in Antarctica, they are responsible to the signatory countries of the Antarctica countries. This means that there is a recognized authority.