The United States today governs eight populated entities--American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic--with a total population of 3.68 million people. This is the first book to analyze the legal and political issues with respect to the U.S. territories, Commonwealths and Freely Associated States. Defining Status has been cited as an authoritative reference by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress. The author analyzes the possibility of statehood for Guam ad the Virgin Islands, and explores the bounds of the Commonwealths and Freely Associated States. He discusses these status alternatives against the backdrop of the political, economic, geographic and cultural uniqueness of each territory so that the reader unfamiliar with the particular territory may enter into the status discussion with sufficient knowledge of each territory. Long now out of print, the book is now being made available once more. The book sets out the entire original book, including its lengthy bibliography.