Territorial dispute refers to a state’s contestation of another state’s sovereignty over a defined territory. These disputes are often linked to resources, such as natural resources or water, and can result in violence, economic instability, and humanitarian crises. They are also often driven by historical grievances or colonial legacies and may be difficult to resolve.
A key issue in scholarly research on territorial conflict is the definition of what constitutes a territorial dispute. There are numerous definitions and competing approaches. One important distinction is whether a territorial dispute is active or latent; for some scholars, territorial claims must be actively pursued to be considered a territorial dispute. Others, such as Erich Weede, define a territorial dispute as a claim that has the potential to lead to military coercion.
Stephen Kocs adopts a legal approach, defining a territorial dispute as “when two or more states formally claim legitimate jurisdiction over the same piece of land.” This definition, which excludes nonviolent conflicts, significantly narrows the scope of his empirical analyses. Similarly, Paul Huth defines a territorial dispute as any conflict that entails a change in the status of a country’s borders, which can only be regarded as a true territorial dispute if the new territory is gained by a challenger state and if the challenged state renounces future claims.
The disputed islands of Iturup (Japan) or Etorofu and Kunashir (Russia) are part of the Kuril archipelago that stretches northeast from Hokkaido to Kamchatka, separating the Sea of Okhotsk and the northern Pacific Ocean. Since the end of the Cold War, the Japanese and Russian governments have been in a territorial dispute over sovereignty over the islands, which Japan refers to as the “Northern Territories.”
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