Monday, April 27, 2015

Session 23: Territorial disputes and the Fate of Disputed Regions

Considering the existence of explicit international laws, channels of diplomatic discourse and organizations such as the United Nations, it is surprising that disputed territories still exist; what’s even more worrying is that in this day and age, nations are still ready to go to war over these strips of lands.

Jammu and Kashmir remain disputed (at least in the hearts and minds of Pakistanis and Indians if not in the paperwork of the UN) since the partition of the subcontinent and, along with suffering from its own problems of insurgency and instability, serves as the elephant in the room in every diplomatic exchange between the two countries, conducted on either side of the Line of Control.

The Gaza strip has also suffered far more than a loss of diplomatic relations between Palestine and Israel as it is a war zone with a staggeringly high numbers of civilian causalities.


Crimea is another disputed area that recently made the headlines. It has a Russian population but forms part of Ukraine. The forced occupation of the region by the Russian military caused uproar in the international realm, and once again highlighted the issue of disputed regions. 

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