Territorial dispute refers to the ongoing contest for ownership or control of a particular geographical area. The dispute can be triggered by any number of reasons, including conflicting historical claims and natural resources such as water, minerals, oil or other fossil fuels. These disputes are central to the study of international conflict because they touch upon core issues such as state sovereignty and borders, power dynamics between states, and how such conflicts can be resolved.
Several studies of territorial disputes have reported strong correlations between geographic concerns and the likelihood that two states will go to war. For example, Paul Diehl found that a disputed territory’s geographic contiguity was one of the strongest dyadic predictors of conflict escalation. In addition, Stuart Bremer and others have found that territorial disputes are more likely to lead to war than other types of armed conflict.
However, territorial disputes have also received relatively little attention in the literature. Some scholars have struggled with the definition of what constitutes a territorial dispute, which can be rather vague. Stephen Kocs, for example, defines a territorial dispute as “when two or more states formally claim legitimate jurisdiction over the same piece of land.” Other scholars have taken a more restrictive approach. For example, Douglas Gibler finds that many peaceful alliances contain territorial settlement agreements and reports that these are less likely to lead to war than other types of conflicts.
Other scholars have also found that there is a strong association between territorial disputes and military confrontations, but they have not been able to identify why these relationships persist. For example, Frazier and others find that states with high levels of economic interdependence are more willing to compromise on their territorial claims and even offer costly concessions in order to reduce the risk of war.