Charting a Course to Conflict: Territorial Issues and Interstate Conflict, 1816-1992 Paul R. Hensel
نویسنده
چکیده
Contentious issues have frequently been overlooked in the study of international relations and interstate conflict. This chapter explores the influence of territory and territorial issues on processes of interstate conflict. I begin by reviewing existing approaches to the study of territory, and existing theoretical efforts to understand the role of territory. I then offer an empirical investigation of the effects of territory on conflict, using the Correlates of War Project's data on militarized interstate disputes. Disputes in which territorial issues are at stake tend to be much more escalatory than disputes over less salient issues. Disputes over territorial issues are less likely to end in stalemates than disputes over other issues, and more likely to end in decisive outcomes. Furthermore, adversaries are more likely to become involved in recurrent conflict following disputes over territorial issues, and this future conflict is likely to recur sooner than after disputes over other issues. Territorial issues thus seem to be especially salient to state leaders, producing more escalatory confrontations and being difficult to resolve through militarized means without triggering recurrent conflict in the future. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for future research on conflict and on contentious issues, and by offering some implications for policy-makers.
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