Comment by Dalewyn

Countries recognize standards broadly along two avenues:

* Internationally recognized standards organizations, such as ISO (literally International Organization for Standardization). Republic of Backwoods and Kingdom of Flyover can't really do much against the majority of the whole world agreeing on something.

* Bigger Gun and/or First Past The Post Adoption, mostly exercised by the US in recent decades. Examples include practically all IT standards, aviation standards, and so on.

If you manage to combine them, you're basically unstoppable at conquering the world.