Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-v48vw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-22T08:30:36.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unequal Ground: Homelands and Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2015

Nadav G. Shelef
Get access

Abstract

Although there is a deep and wide consensus that international conflict over territory is especially common and destructive, there is less agreement over what it is about territory that leads to these outcomes. Understanding the role of territory in international conflict requires complementing realist and materialist understandings of the value of territory with one grounded in the constructivist theories that dominate studies of nationalism and geography. Doing so recognizes that homeland territoriality, because it raises the value of a specific territory and provides an imperative to establish sovereignty over it, plays a distinctive role in driving international conflict. This article presents a systematic, replicable operationalization of the homeland status of territory that, because it is consistent with constructivist theories of nationalism, can be used to integrate constructivist understandings of the role of territory into quantitative studies of territorial conflict. This measure is then used to test the implication that the loss of subjectively defined homeland territory increases the likelihood of international conflict relative to the loss of nonhomeland territory. The findings that dividing homelands is especially likely to lead to conflict are corroborated by a second novel measure of the homeland status of territory that is based on the identification of co-ethnics in a territory before the border was drawn.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , Winter 2016 , pp. 33 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abdelal, Rawi, Herrera, Yoshiko M., Johnston, Alastair Iain, and McDermott, Rose. 2006. Identity as a Variable. Perspectives on Politics 4 (4):695–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, John. 1994. The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory. Review of International Political Economy 1 (1):53–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, John. 2001. Reinventing Geopolitics: Geographies of Modern Statehood. Heidelberg, Germany: Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Agnew, John. 2007. No Borders, No Nations: Making Greece in Macedonia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97 (2):398–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akenson, Donald H. 1992. God's People: Convenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
American Community Survey. 2012. S0201—Selected Population Profile in the United States. Available at <http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml>. Accessed 27 April 2015..+Accessed+27+April+2015.>Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Anderson, James. 1988. Nationalist Ideology and Territory. In Nationalism, Self-determination, and Political Geography, edited by Johnston, R.J., Knight, David, and Kofman, Eleonore, 18–39. New York: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Anno, Tadashi. 2000. Collective Identity as an “Emotional Investment Portfolio”: An Economic Analogy to Psychological. Process. In Beyond Boundaries? Disciplines, Paradigms, and Theoretical Integration in International Studies, edited by Sil, Rudra and Doherty, Eileen M., 117–41. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. 1997. “Nation” and “Nationalism”: The Misuse of Key Concepts in Political Science. PS: Political Science and Politics 30 (4):712–16.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Black, Jeremy. 2002. Maps and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Branch, Jordan. 2011. Mapping the Sovereign State: Technology, Authority, and Systemic Change. International Organization 65 (1):1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2009. Ethnicity Race, and Nationalism. Annual Review of Sociology 35:21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burghardt, Andrew F. 1973. The Bases of Territorial Claims. Geographical Review 63 (2):225–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik. 2013. Nationalism and Ethnicity in International Relations. In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas, and Simmons, Beth A., 530–54. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2012a. The CIA World Factbook: Jordan. Available at <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/>. Accessed 4 April 2015..+Accessed+4+April+2015.>Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2012b. The CIA World Factbook: West Bank. Available at <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/>. Accessed 4 April 2015..+Accessed+4+April+2015.>Google Scholar
Connor, Walker. 1994. Ethnonationalism: The Quest for Understanding. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dafoe, Allan, Oneal, John R., and Russett, Bruce. 2013. The Democratic Peace: Weighing the Evidence and Cautious Inference. International Studies Quarterly 57 (1):201–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwish, Mahmoud, ed. 1974. Palestinian Leaders Discuss the New Challenges for the Resistance. Beirut: Palestine Research Center.Google Scholar
Downes, Alexander B. 2001. The Holy Land Divided: Defending Partition as a Solution to Ethnic Wars. Security Studies 10 (4):58–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1986. Empires. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1995. Rationalist Explanations for War. International Organization 49:379–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedenwald, Herbert, and Friedman, H.G., eds. 1913. The American Jewish Year Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America.Google Scholar
Gartzke, Erik, and Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede. 2006. Identity and Conflict: Ties That Bind and Differences That Divide. European Journal of International Relations 12 (1):53–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1992. Nationalism in the Vacuum. In Thinking Theoretically About Soviet nationalities: History and Comparison in the Study of the USSR, edited by Motyl, Alexander J., 243–54. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1996. Do Nations Have Navels? Nations and Nationalism 3 (2):366–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibler, Douglas M. 1996. Alliances That Never Balance: The Territorial Settlement Treaty. Conflict Management and Peace Science 15 (1):75–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibler, Douglas M. 2007. Bordering on Peace: Democracy, Territorial Issues, and Conflict. International Studies Quarterly 51:509–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibler, Douglas M. 2012. The Territorial Peace: Borders, State Development, and International Conflict. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginges, Jeremy, and Atran, Scott. 2009. Noninstrumental Reasoning over Sacred Values: An Indonesian Case Study. Psychology of Learning and Motivation 50:193–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginges, Jeremy, Atran, Scot, Medin, Douglas, and Shikaki, Khalil. 2007. Sacred Bounds on the Rational Resolution of Violent Political Conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (18):7357–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giuliano, Elise. 2006. Secessionists from the Bottom Up. World Politics 58:276–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, Stacie E. 2010. Indivisible Territory and the Politics of Legitimacy: Jerusalem and Northern Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goemans, Hein E. 2006. Bounded Communities: Territoriality, Territorial Attachment, and Conflict. In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, edited by Kahler, Miles and Walter, Barbara F., 25–61. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goertz, Gary, and Diehl, Paul F.. 1992. Territorial Change and International Conflict. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A. 2001. Toward a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory. Annual Review of Political Science 4 (1):139–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottmann, Jean. 1973. The Significance of Territory. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted R., and Marshall, Monty G.. 2005. Peace and Conflict: A Global Survey of Armed Conflicts, Self-determination Movements, and Democracy. College Park, MD: Center for International Development and Conflict Management.Google Scholar
Harley, J.B. 1988. Maps, Knowledge, and Power. In The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use of Past Environments, edited by Cosgrove, Denis and Daniels, Stephen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hassner, Ron E. 2009. War on Sacred Grounds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael. 2000. Containing Nationalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hensel, Paul R. 1996. Charting a Course to Conflict: Territorial Issues and Interstate Conflict 1816–1992. Conflict Management and Peace Science 15 (1):43–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hensel, Paul R. 2001. Contentious Issues and World Politics: Territorial Claims in the Americas 1816–1992. International Studies Quarterly 45:81–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hensel, Paul R., and Mitchell, Sara McLaughlin. 2005. Issue Indivisibility and Territorial Claims. GeoJournal 64:275–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, eds. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huth, Paul K. 1996. Standing Your Ground: Territorial Disputes and International Conflict. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huth, Paul K. 2000. Territory: Why Are Territorial Disputes Between States a Central Cause of International Conflict. In What Do We Know About War?, edited by Vasquez, John. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Huth, Paul, and Allee, Todd. 2002. The Democratic Peace and Territorial Conflict in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Carter. 2008. Partitioning to Peace: Sovereignty Demography, and Ethnic Civil Wars. International Security 32 (4):140–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D.P., and Toft, Monica Duffy. 2014. Grounds for War: The Evolution of Territorial Conflict. International Security 38 (3):7–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Daniel M., Bremer, Stuart A., and Singer, J. David. 1996. Militarized Interstate Disputes, 1816–1992: Rationale, Coding Rules, and Empirical Patterns. Conflict Management and Peace Science 15 (2):163–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Chaim. 1998. When All Else Fails: Ethnic Population Transfers and Partitions in the Twentieth Century. International Security 23 (2):120–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohl, Philip L. 1998. Nationalism and Archaeology: On the Constructions of Nations and the Reconstructions of the Remote Past. Annual Review of Anthropology 27:223–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, Hans. 1939. The Nature of Nationalism. American Political Science Review 33 (6):1001–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Seokwoo. 2002. Boundary and Territory Briefing: Territorial Disputes Among Japan, China and Taiwan Concerning the Senkaku Islands. Vol. 3. Durham, UK: International Boundaries Research Unit.Google Scholar
Lustick, Ian S. 1993. Unsettled States, Disputed Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Maoz, Zeev. 2005. Dyadic MID Dataset (version 2.0). Available at <http://vanity.dss.ucdavis.edu/~maoz/dyadmid.html>. Accessed 21 May 2015..+Accessed+21+May+2015.>Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 2000. The Case for Partitioning Kosovo. In NATO's Empty Victory: A Postmortem on the Balkan War, edited by Carpenter, T.G.. Washington, DC: CATO Institute.Google Scholar
Miller, Benjamin. 2007. States, Nations, and the Great Powers: The Sources of Regional War and Peace. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Alexander B. 2002. National Claims to Territory in the Modern State System . Geopolitics 7 (2):193–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mylonas, Harris, and Shelef, Nadav G.. 2014. Which Land Is Our Land? Domestic Politics and Change in the Territorial Claims of Stateless Nationalist Movements. Security Studies 23 (1):1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, David. 2001. Boundaries, Borders, and Barriers: Changing Geographic Perspectives on Territorial Lines. In Identities, Borders, Orders: Rethinking International Relations Theory, edited by Albert, M., Jacobson, D., and Lapid, Y.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Nkrumah, Kwame. 1957. Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
O'Leary, Brendan. 2007. Analyzing Partition: Definition Classification and Explanation. Political Geography 26:886–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paasi, Anssi. 1991. Deconstructing Regions: Notes on Scales of Spatial Life. Environment and Planning A 23:239–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, Jan. 2002. Nations, States and Homelands: Territory and Territoriality in Nationalist Thought. Nations and Nationalisms 8 (3):277–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, Olivier. 2007. The New Central Asia: Geopolitics and the Birth of Nations. New York: IB Tauris.Google Scholar
Sack, Robert David. 1986. Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Saideman, Stephen M., and Ayers, R. William. 2008. For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism, and War. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkees, Meredith Reid, and Wayman, Frank Whelon. 2010. Resort to War: A Data Guide to Inter-state, Extra-state, Intra-state, and Non-state Wars, 1816–2007. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Senese, Paul D., and Vasquez, John. 2005. Assessing the Steps to War. British Journal of Political Science 35 (4):607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senese, Paul D. 2008. The Steps to War: An Empirical Study. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Shelef, Nadav G. 2010. Evolving Nationalism: Homeland Religion and National Identity in Israel, 1925–2005. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Anthony D. 1996. Culture, Community and Territory: The Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism. International Affairs 72 (3):445–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Anthony D. 2000. The “Sacred” Dimension of Nationalism. Millennium—Journal of International Studies 29 (3):791–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Peter J. 1994. The State as Container: Territoriality in the Modern World-System. Progress in Human Geography 18 (2):151–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tir, Jaroslav. 2005. Dividing Countries to Promote Peace: Prospects for Long-term Success of Partitions. Journal of Peace Research 42 (5):545–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toft, Monica Duffy. 2003. The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Vasquez, John A. 1995. Why Do Neighbors Fight? Proximity, Interaction, or Territoriality. Journal of Peace Research 32 (3):277–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasquez, John, and Henehan, Marie T.. 2001. Territorial Disputes and the Probability of War, 1816–1992. Journal of Peace Research 38 (2):123–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasquez, John A., and Valeriano, Brandon. 2009. Territory as a Source of Conflict and a Road to Peace. In The Sage Handbook of Conflict Resolution, edited by Bercovitch, Jacob, Kremeniuk, Viktor A., and Zartman, William I., 193–209. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, Barbara F. 2009. Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatist Conflicts Are So Violent. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Eugen. 1976. Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France 1870–1914. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weidmann, Nils B. 2009. Geography as Motivation and Opportunity: Group Concentration and Ethnic Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (4):526–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, George W. 2004. Nation, State, and Territory: Origins, Evolution, and Relationships. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas, Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Min, Brian. 2009. Ethnic Politics and Armed Conflict. A Configurational Analysis of a New Global Dataset. American Sociological Review 74 (2):316–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Denis, and Fels, John. 1992. The Power of Maps. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Yiftachel, Oren. 2001. The Homeland and Nationalism. In Encyclopedia of Nationalism, edited by Motyl, A.J.. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Yael. 1995. Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Nadav G. Shelef supplementary material S1

Nadav G. Shelef supplementary material

Download Nadav G. Shelef supplementary material S1(File)
File 835.9 KB