A
dispute is a disagreement. A territorial dispute, in simple terms, is a
disagreement about “who owns a territory.” In international relations, this
means in principle there is a disagreement between at least two parties in
relation to whom the sovereign is over a piece of land.
We
regularly see on the news examples of territorial disputes. The most notorious
are Jerusalem, Kashmir, Gibraltar, Catalonia, Falkland/Malvinas islands. Yet,
there are many more territorial disputes. The links below show 100+ current
international territorial disputes.
CIA’s
World Factbook
For
a more evident illustration, the two images below highlight the countries that
are part of current international territorial disputes worldwide.
HuffPost
This
page includes a very brief account of a few territorial disputes.
Brilliant
Maps
This
page includes references to many territorial disputes.
The
usual reasons most governments use to support these territorial disputes have
to do with human rights. In reality, most of these disputes are centered on
natural resources. Some of them are center on religious, cultural and/or ethnic
elements. The following posts will address territorial disputes individually
and their respective reasons in each case for more detail.
In
order to better understand what a territorial dispute is we have to be familiar
with basic vocabulary used in law, politics and international relations. Two
key words must be introduced: STATE and SOVEREIGNTY. That is because in all
territorial disputes we will have at least one STATE claiming exclusive
SOVEREIGNTY over a territory.
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Territorial Disputes and State
Sovereignty: International Law and Politics,” London and New York: Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, 2020 (forthcoming)
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST tomorrow: State, sovereignty and territory
Monday 16th September 2019
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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