A border dispute is a territorial conflict between states where there is disagreement about the extent to which a certain area should be considered part of one or more nations. A wide range of issues can lead to a border dispute, including different interpretations of historical precedents and competing ideas about the territory that is ‘rightfully’ controlled by a given nation.
Oftentimes, these differences are not settled through peaceful means and result in ongoing tensions between the countries involved. These tensions can also be exacerbated by the competition for resources and/or other interests in the disputed region.
The history of a country’s borders can be an important factor, particularly when it comes to border disputes that involve the legacy of colonialism. For example, India and Pakistan have a long-running conflict over Kashmir which dates back to the end of British rule in 1947. Similarly, the Netherlands and France continue to battle over a marina called Captain Oliver’s that is located in the disputed waters between their respective countries. The disagreement has been dubbed the “Honey War” because Captain Oliver tried to collect taxes for his facility by seizing honey from bees living in hollow trees.
Despite the prevalence of this phenomenon, scholars have yet to fully understand what factors lead to territorial disputes and how they move between latent and active stages of conflict. A few theories have been advanced to explain this process. For example, Robert Mandel finds that a border dispute is more likely to occur between states of roughly equal power. This counters the assumption that only stronger revisionist states initiate these conflicts.