Populo Volume 2 Issue 2

identity’, 3 in this case the state, while Krasner defines international norms as ‘standards of behaviour defined in terms of rights and obligations’. 4 Zacher defines the territorial integrity norm as ‘the growing respect for the proscription that force should not be used to alter interstate boundaries’. 5 According to

Finnemore and Sikkink, norms go through at least three stages of life: the norm

emergence where norms are proselytized by ‘norm entrepreneurs’; the norm

cascade where norms resonate with a large audience and get adopted by more

actors; and finally the norm internalization where the norm acquires a taken-for- granted quality. 6

Zacher argues that the emergence stage of the territorial integrity norm started

with the end of the First World War. Although conflict had been significantly

reduced in the period between 1815 and 1913 due to constant deliberation

provided by the framework of the Concert of Europe, the great powers were still

engaging in territorial aggrandizement within the Western state system as well

as in colonial expansion. After World War One the norm was reflected in one of

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points: ‘specific covenants for the purpose of

affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to

great and small states alike’ and was ingrained in Article 10 of the League of

Nations Covenant: ‘The members of the League undertake to respect and

preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League’. 7 With Western

democracies being the main exponents of the territorial integrity norm, various

3 Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, ‘International Norm Dynamics and Political Change’, International Organization, 52.4 (1998), 887-917 (p. 891). 4 Stephen D. Krasner, ‘Structural causes and regime consequences: Regimes as intervening variables’, International Organization, 36.2 (1982), 185-205 (p. 186). 5 Mark W. Zacher, ‘The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use of Force’, International Organization, 55.2 (2001), 215-250 (p. 215). 6 Finnenmore and Sikkink, pp. 888-908. 7 Paul R. Hensel, Michael E. Allison and Ahmed Khanani, ‘Territorial Integrity Treaties and Armed Conflict over Territory’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, 26.2 (2009), 120-143 (p. 122).

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