A territorial dispute refers to a disagreement between States regarding the location of boundaries that delineate the territory over which each State exercises sovereignty. Various definitions exist in the literature. Some scholars (such as Paul Huth) have the broadest view of territorial disputes defining them as “a disagreement between States about where a territory should be fixed or, more fundamentally, a dispute that involves one country contesting the right of another to even exercise sovereignty over some portion of its homeland or colonial territories.” Others (such as Jones and Keck) narrowly define the term to refer to any conflict that concerns whether a specific piece of land is within a State’s internationally recognized borders.
The importance of territorial disputes to the study of conflict and peace is underscored by the fact that a significant proportion of militarized conflicts involve some type of territory-related issue. For example, a survey of the 3000 militarized conflicts in the Global Conflict Tracker database from 1919 to 2001 finds that 29.2% of them involve a territorial dispute as the primary issue for at least one participant.
Although it is difficult to determine exactly how many of these territorial disputes lead to militarized conflict, there are several conclusions that can be drawn from the available research. For example, studies suggest that territorial disputes are more prone to coercive bargaining and conflict escalation than other kinds of interstate conflicts. This is not a simple matter of geography, however; it may well be that other factors (such as the extent to which the claims are viewed as inviolable) influence states’ choices to escalate.