Territorial dispute occurs when one state disputes another’s sovereignty or ownership over a piece of land. This can result in a conflict between states, which often becomes militarized and is more likely to turn into global or regional wars than other kinds of interstate conflict. The two World Wars and many other conflicts have been rooted in territorial disputes. As such, scholars have devoted considerable attention to understanding the origins and dynamics of territorial disputes.
Despite the importance of this field, there are some problems with data collection and conceptual definitions that limit the scope of research on this topic. A significant problem is that many of the most prominent definitions of territorial dispute only consider cases where there has been a transfer of territory between states. As a result, these studies exclude a large number of disputes that are not territorial in nature.
Another problem is that these approaches do not differentiate between armed and non-armed forms of territorial conflict. This is an important distinction because armed conflict is much more likely to lead to escalation and may even result in a full-blown war.
While the scholarly literature has made substantial progress in understanding the onset of territorial conflict, there is still much more work to be done. Among the most important issues to be addressed are the reasons that some disputes become militarized and why the severity of a conflict is so variable. In addition, it is important to understand the role that international institutions play in resolving territorial disputes.
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