Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
26
Boundary disputes
Gerald Blake
INTRODUCTION
Since the Second World War, the international
community has formally declared itself in favour
of the stability of boundaries between states. The
Charter of the United Nations set the scene in
1945 by recognising that the sovereignty of a
properly constituted state is absolute and exclusive,
and that states must respect the territorial integrity
of one another. The principle of the inviolability
of boundaries has been confirmed on a number
of subsequent occasions. In 1964, member states
of the Organisation of African Unity agreed to
respect the borders that they had inherited from
colonial times. In 1975 in the Helsinki Final Act,
the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe affirmed the same principle, while in 1991
the Commonwealth of Independent States (the
majority of the states of the former Soviet Union)
also agreed to accept their inherited boundaries.
States in Latin America had set the trend in the
nineteenth century when they became
independent of Spain and Portugal, a principle
known as
Uti possidetis
. These worthy declarations,
alas, have not rid the world of boundary disputes.
On the contrary, Africa, Europe, the former Soviet
Union and Latin America have all witnessed a
large number of boundary disputes, and some
spectacular changes to the political map. The truth
is that the world political map is changing all the
time, and will continue to change in future.
Boundary disputes must therefore be seen in
the context of an evolving political mosaic. In
many cases, disputes result in territorial
adjustments, but the political map also changes in
response to other powerful processes. Goertz and
Diehl (1992) undertook an analysis of territorial
changes worldwide from 1816 to 1980. Of 770
territorial transfers, 42.3 per cent were by cession,
15.6 per cent by conquest, 15.5 per cent on
independence and 14.5 per cent by annexation.
Other causes were secession, unification and
mandates. Since 1980, there have been large-scale
changes to the world map, particularly in the wake
of the break-up of the Soviet Union. Altogether,
twenty-two new states have emerged, and more
than fifty new land boundaries. A series of world
maps in Foucher (1988) tracing the evolution of
international boundaries since 1800 strikingly
reveal how the political arrangement of space can
change through time. The world map of 100 years
ago is scarcely recognisable; it is doubtful whether
today's world map will be recognisable a century
hence. The popular perception is that the map we
know is permanent, a kind of finished product. In
reality, it is a snapshot of geopolitical history.
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PROBLEM
There are 191 independent states and seventy
dependent territories in the world today. Most of
the surviving dependencies are islands. Seven states
retain territorial claims to Antarctica, but these
boundaries are not considered here. There are 308
land boundaries between sovereign states (Biger
1995), although some authorities find a few more.
Out of the 191 independent states, 148 are coastal
