Territorial dispute refers to disagreements about the ownership or control of land between states, which can be rooted in historical claims, cultural ties, and strategic interests. Territorial disputes were a major issue during the globalization of conflict in the run up to World War II and have continued to play an important role in shaping alliances, triggering military actions, and influencing national policies.
Scholars on territorial disputes have wrestled with the conceptual issues of what exactly constitutes a territorial dispute and how these relate to militarized conflict. The earliest scholarship was driven by structural perspectives of international relations that considered the cause of conflict to be an intrinsic part of the nature of state power and the balance of forces.
More recent research has moved away from this position and demonstrates that territorial disputes are not simply one among many variables in the etiology of conflict, but are in fact a fundamentally important factor. They are characterized by the presence of multiple competing claims, the presence of a specific geographical area that is subject to conflict, and the existence of a militarized conflict between disputing parties.
One of the major challenges in the study of territorial disputes is that the scholarly literature lacks comprehensive compilations of territorial conflicts and tends to lump them into broader categories. In addition, scholars have a tendency to assume that the militarization of territorial disputes is inherently related to poor border delineation and therefore will decrease over time as better maps are drawn. This is a flawed assumption and does not consider the fact that there are many disputes with clearly defined boundaries that are not militarized.