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 (many) more. The link below (Wikipedia) shows a list of 100+
current international territorial disputes.
For
a more evident illustration, the two images below highlight the countries that
are part of current international territorial disputes worldwide.
Image
from “HuffPost” [LINK] accessed 22/02/2018. This page includes a very brief account of
a few territorial disputes.
Image
from “Brilliant Maps” [LINK] accessed 22/02/2018. 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 centred on
natural resources. Some of them are centred 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.
NEXT POST: State, sovereignty and territory
Jorge Emilio Nunez
Twitter: @London1701
23rd February 2018
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