The majority of states in the world today were created viasecession, but a majority of secessionist movements havefailed to gain independence. Counter-secession is not onlymore successful than secession; it is also more common.There are over 300 nations today that lack sovereign states,as well as untold thousands more groups whose identitiesnever became nationalist or who were never able to createrobust movements in the first place. Nonetheless, counter-secession is comparatively understudied, and a small butgrowing number of excellent analyses often focus on a sin-gle state strategy. Independence is rarely won quickly orcheaply, as existing states fight to maintain their bordersacross four phases of secession: identity formation, groupmobilisation, (un)armed struggle and international recogni-tion. This article presents the repertoire of states' counter-secession strategies throughout the secessionist struggle,including cultural assimilation, administrative organisation,civilian displacement, banning secessionist political activity,fragmenting the secessionist movement, economiccoercion, violent repression and blocking international recognition.