No people are more cognizant of political and geographic changes than philatelists. Take Danzig-the Polish city of Gedansk where the Solidarity movement began. During the early stamp period, Danzig was part of Prussia and then Germany after Confederation. After WW I, Danzig was a quasi independent country that issued its own stamps and after WW II Danzig became part of Poland to which it was geographically contiguous. Numerous countries have had short philatelic lives and one of the cottage industries among philatelic professionals was speculating on which country, that used to issue stamps and was absorbed, would later achieve political independence and issue their own stamps again. The reason was simple. When a country achieves independence there is great interest in their new postage stamps. If a country is a reVitalized philatelic entity, this interest extends back to the previous stamps that had been issued and the price of these older stamps tends to rise. It has happened to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and many others- new countries again emerge from places that had been absorbed into larger political units. And the new collectors of these areas want the older stamps from the previous political incarnation and price rise.
I had been speculating in this regard in the stamps of Palestine, postage stamps that had been issued in the pre WW II period for the British mandate in the area. It always seemed that some two state solution with the Israelis and Palestinians would be the long term answer to the nearly 70 years of war that has marked the establishment of Israel. Increasingly, lately, a two state solution seems less likely. Romney's visit and hostility to the Palestinian asperations will move American policy further away from a two state solution no matter who wins the American election. And the Likud government has no plans to spin off a viable Palestine. Perhaps permanent occupation will be the long term solution- one on which people have differing ideas about politically but which philatelically, at least, is very unsatisfying.