Abstract:
This paper offers a conceptual history of territorial integrity. It begins with a contemporary definition of the term, its relation to internal competence and sovereignty, and suggests why an analysis of the term is important in the context of the war on terror and contemporary geopolitics more generally. It then relates the term historically to the notion of uti possidetis and the idea of self-determination. The analysis includes Wilson's Fourteen Points, the League of Nations and the United Nations and de-colonization. The suggestion is that because of the instability associated with territorial change, territorial integrity has increasingly come to dominate self-determination. Self-determination has been tightly circumscribed by the insistence on the term in UN resolutions, charters of state and intergovernmental organizations. Various examples will be given to illustrate the case.
