Rivalry and Territory in Asia

Here are a few recent articles that came up in the context of the recent ASEAN meetings. Each deals with rivalry and territory explicitly.

Himalayas (India and China)

Article on each territorial dispute

Main Time article on India and China rivalry

China vs. Nepal

Territory Granted by God

This article presents an interesting perspective on peace in the Middle East. While I do not agree that the conflict is religious, the follow statement is supported by my own research.

"Across the world, people believe that devotion to sacred or core values that incorporate moral beliefs — like the welfare of family and country, or commitment to religion and honor — are, or ought to be, absolute and inviolable. Our studies, carried out with the support of the National Science Foundation and the Defense Department, suggest that people will reject material compensation for dropping their commitment to sacred values and will defend those values regardless of the costs."

So when a good transcends typical values it defies rational calculations and compensation.

"Indeed, across the political spectrum, almost everyone we surveyed rejected the initial solutions we offered — ideas that are accepted as common sense among most Westerners, like simply trading land for peace or accepting shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. Why the opposition to trade-offs for peace?"

"This strongly implies that using the standard approaches of “business-like negotiations” favored by Western diplomats will only backfire."

So what is the path to peace? Its pretty simple actually. Simply apologize.

"Absolutists who violently rejected offers of money or peace for sacred land were considerably more inclined to accept deals that involved their enemies making symbolic but difficult gestures. For example, Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist if the Israelis simply offered an official apology for Palestinian suffering in the 1948 war. Similarly, Israeli respondents said they could live with a partition of Jerusalem and borders very close to those that existed before the 1967 war if Hamas and the other major Palestinian groups explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist."

Territorial Dispute between India and Pakistan

This article outlines the Sir Creek territorial dispute that has flared up between India and Pakistan.
"The narrow, 60-mile-long estuary has been a bone of contention between the two nations for decades. But the dispute has been given new urgency -- and stoked new controversy -- because it featured in the buildup to the Mumbai terrorist attacks that left 171 people dead in late November. It was in the Sir Creek area where the 10 hijackers who set sail from Karachi, Pakistan, hijacked an Indian fishing boat that provided them with the cover to reach Mumbai undetected."

Territorial Claim

Here is an interesting article about a territorial claim disputed between Japan and South Korea.

"For outsiders, the dispute over islets that seem to rise vertically from the sea and have little economic value, might seem esoteric. But for those Koreans who have never forgiven Japan for its brutal occupation of their country and who continue to measure success against Japanese competitors, the dispute over what the South Koreans call Dokdo and Japan calls Takeshima is very real, and very emotional."

The Steps to War

My mentor, John Vasquez, released his new book. Get it for extra credit (if you write a paper on it)!

South Ossetia Primer

Here is a primer on issue behind the Russia-Georgia conflict.

New Territorial Dispute

Dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over a World Heritage Site.

Territory and the Arctic

As some of you know, I was just in Canada. Read this while I was there, which goes over the coming territorial dispute over the rights to the Arctic.

Treading on Thin Ice

"In recent months, a Cold War-style game of imperial conquest has developed beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage, a submarine-driven dispute involving the United States, Norway, Denmark and especially Canada and Russia. Mr. Harper used this week's Throne Speech to signal the federal government was stepping up its presence in the Far North, pledging a bold and expensive military campaign to assert sovereignty over territory claimed by Canada, and areas of the Arctic that are still in dispute."

Borders and War

In addition to territory being a common cause of war, it might also be interesting to look at the proportion of border incidents that become international incidents.

A Deadly U.S.-Iran Firefight

"U.S. soldiers [and] Iraqi forces on a routine joint patrol along the border with Iran, when they spotted two Iranian soldiers retreating from Iraqi territory back into Iran. A moment later, U.S. and Iraqi forces came upon a third Iranian soldier on the Iraqi side of the border, who stood his ground. As U.S. and Iraqi soldiers approached the Iranian officer and began speaking with him, a platoon of Iranian soldiers appeared and moved to surround the coalition patrol, taking up positions on high ground. At that point, according to the Army's statement, the Iranian captain told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that if they tried to leave they would be fired on. Fearing abduction by the Iranians, U.S. troops moved to go anyway, and fighting broke out.

Falklands Redux

It will soon be the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. My blog will holding a celebration all year. In honor of the event, I am going out right now to buy a Bears wool sweatshirt made of Falklands sheep (sheep outnumber people 200-1).

Apparently, Britain and Argentina are still fighting over the territorial issues.

Falkland Islands An Unsettled Issue 25 Years After War: Contending Claims by Argentina, Britain Burden Relations as Anniversary Nears

"The windblown archipelago is once again claiming headlines here, climbing back near the top of Argentina's international agenda a quarter-century after its military surrendered the territory to Britain.

Last week Argentina aimed yet another rhetorical dart at Britain, publicly reasserting its claim to islands it says were stolen by the English in 1833. The British should be getting the message by now: President Nestor Kirchner's government in the past year has issued official complaints concerning rights to the islands at a rate of more than one per month."