Borders and Territory
A great deal of my research and teaching involves international borders and territorial claims. See especially my Research and ICOW Project web pages, as well my syllabi for PSCI 4820 (undergraduate "Geography, History, and International Relations") and PSCI 5820 (graduate "Contexts and International Relations").
General Border Resources
- Association for Borderlands Studies
- Frontiers and Boundaries (from Wilson Krukoski; also available in Spanish, Portuguese, and French)
- International Boundaries Research Unit
- International Boundary Consultants
- Borderbase (an interesting site with pictures of as many international borders as possible, trying to give more life and meaning to each border than is possible by seeing lines on a map. See also Peter Hering's Border Pictures site.)
- The Corner Corner (from Brian J. Butler; a page with information on each tripoint between U.S. states. See also David Mark's TriState, USA.)
Territorial Claims: General Resources
My Issue Correlates of War (ICOW) research project is in the process of collecting data on every territorial claim since 1816. The following resources might also be useful for others interested in this topic:
- International Court of Justice (the ICJ has decided a number of cases related to borders and territory, with more currently underway)
- CIA World Factbook
- Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbooks
- U.S. State Department Country Background Notes
- International Boundary Studies (a series of monographs produced by the Geographer of the U.S. Department of State between the 1960s-1980s, published online by the Florida State University Law Library)
- Limits in the Seas (a similar series that covers maritime borders, also published online by the FSU Law Library)
- The Trade and Environment Database (TED) and Inventory of Conflict and Environment (ICE) projects include a number of cases related to territory; they also provide a list of water-related cases from these two projects called Water on the Web
- Wilson Krukoski's "Boundaries of Brazil" site
Potential Territorial Claims
One important question in studying territorial claims is identifying potential claims -- the cases (whether land borders or islands) that might be the subject of claims.
- The Correlates of War (COW) project has produced Direct Contiguity and Colonial/Dependency Contiguity data sets to identify every bordering relationship -- whether by dry land or no more than 400 miles of open sea -- since 1816. I am the current host for these data sets, and I'm in the process of updating and extending them both.
- The U.S. State Department produces a list of Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty; many of these areas are currently (or have been recently) the subject of territorial claims, and should they ever become independent new claims might arise.
- UNEP Islands page and Island Directory page
- Wikipedia provides lists of (current) Political and Geographic Borders and Disputed Territories
- World Island Info includes a variety of information about the world's islands, including a list of islands divided by an international border.
http://www.paulhensel.org/territory.html
Last updated: 3 January 2009
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Paul R. Hensel. All rights reserved.