To what extent is territorial integrity states’ main security concern in the 21 st century. – PO-248- Christos Vlastaris
The territorial integrity of the state is the foremost matter of national security.
It is an issue of military security since, as Barry Buzan has argued, ‘a state and
its society can be, in their own terms, secure in the political, economic, societal
and environmental dimensions, and yet all of these accomplishments can be undone by military failure’. 1 This essay argues that, regardless of the recent
developments in Ukraine, the majority of states in the twenty-first century, apart
from limited unresolved territorial and maritime issues between state dyads, do
not need to be concerned about their territorial integrity on account of the deep
internalization of the territorial integrity norm, which remains strong and widely
accepted although it has been somewhat eroded due to interest based
interventions. States that do face threats usually do so from internal
separationist movements, which regarding them international law remains
nuanced, rather than from an external invader. Peaceful separationist
movements such as the case of Scotland are not discussed.
Historically, territorial ambitions and disputes constitute the main source of conflict. 2 However, wars over territory have been incrementally and
substantially reduced to the point that when such conflicts occur, such as the
war in Ukraine, are considered anachronistic. This is due to the advent and
consolidation of the territorial integrity norm. According to Finnemore and
Sikkink a norm is ‘a standard of appropriate behaviour for actors with a given
1 Michael Sheehan , ‘Military Security’, in Contemporary Security Studies, ed by Allan Collins, 6 th edn, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), pp. 203-216 (p. 205). 2 Tuomas Forsberg, ‘Explaining Territorial Disputes: From Power Politics to Normative Reasons’, Journal of Peace Research, 33.4 (1996), 433-449 (p. 433).
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