Territorial disputes: categories of claims, issues at stake and contexts
Each territorial dispute has its own characteristics.[1] Indeed, territorial disputes may be defined and characterized unidimensionally in several ways: a) according to the elements of a sovereign state they may be based on: population (minorities, ethnic conflicts, etc.), territory (natural resources, borders, etc.)and government (leaders’ popularity, applicable law, etc.); b) according to the claims introduced by the challenger and challenged party, based on: effective control, territorial integrity, historical, cultural, economic, elitist, ideological or colorable claim; c) according to the issues at stake, centered on: strategic location of the territory, ties to bordering minority, political unification or economic value of the territory; d) according the many elements and features related to the context in question: international, regional and domestic.
Truly, territorial disputes are often more intricate and require a multidimensional approach to fully understand, explain and assess them. Consequently, without discarding unidimensional views, the same territorial dispute could be understood, explained and assessed more comprehensively by taking a multidimensional approach that considers, for example, agents other than solely sovereign states such as communities—e.g. indigenous people, whether normatively they constitute a state or not, the different categories of claims and issues at stake present and the contexts that may influence their dynamics.
Categories of claims
Claims over disputed territories may have legal and/or non-legal or extra-legal bases.[2] These include effective control, history, culture, territorial integrity, economy, elitism and ideology. Effective control implies the display of power and authority over a territory and its population. For example, newly formed states, like the post-colonial Latin American states, claiming control over territories once under colonial rule. A historical claim is based on past facts related to the disputed territory whether there is current actual occupation and effective control or not.
Constant issues at stake
Issues at stake in territorial disputes refer to features that could help explain why they may originate, continue or escalate into conflict. They are closely related to claims and may have different characteristics including legal and non-legal or extra-legal considerations. There are several issues at stake present in different cases that concern territory—e.g. strategic location and its economic value, population—e.g. ties with bordering minorities, government—e.g. political unification. For example, original claims to Antarctica were intertwined with claims to the closest islands such as the Falklands/Malvinas where those states with overlapping claims either disagreed or refused to recognize them.
Context in territorial disputes
The domestic or local, regional and international or global contexts may influence the origin, continuation and potential escalation into conflict of territorial dispute. The international context presents elements and features such as balance of military forces, prior gain of territory, common alliance and previous settlement. The regional context encompasses other factors such as common past, geographical location, development and natural resources. Finally, the domestic context includes matters such as prior unresolved disputes, prior loss of territory and decolonization.
NOTE:
This blog series introduces, explains and assesses issues pertaining territorial disputes in the Americas including law, politics, culture, history and religion. There will be new posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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[1] See Jorge E. Núñez, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty: International Law and Politics (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), Chapters 6, 7 and 8 for individual territorial disputes in more detail.
[2] See Jorge E. Núñez, Cosmopolitanism, State Sovereignty, International Law and Politics: A Theory. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023), Chapter 7; Jorge E. Núñez, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty: International Law and Politics (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), Chapter 4; and Jorge E. Núñez, Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017), Chapter 6.
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