A Utopia? Government without Territorial Monopoly

We normally take it for granted that each government has a particular territory and that each territory belongs to a particular government. Yet this identification of government with territory need not be the case. In important instances, it does not hold. Multiple Governments Associated with the Same Territory. In the classic case, several governments claim the same territory. Sometimes the borders are ill-defined or the ownership disputed—perhaps they have been for centuries. Historically, this situation has led to innumerable wars. Such wars often seem to reflect a collective failure: the individuals and groups involved—in particular, the leaders of the military-industrial complex and the politicians playing the nationalist tune—find it individually rational to fight for territories, but from the point of view of society, it is difficult to see what is really gained. The same conclusion often holds for the winners of a territorial war as for a government that engages in and subsequently loses that war. The winners, too, spend valuable resources for military purposes, but in may cases they would be better off not owning the conquered territory.