Participants
in a project on globalization, territoriality, and conflict presented
their preliminary findings
to an audience
of about 50 policymakers,
embassy and government officials, scholars, and students at an IGCC event
at the UC Washington Center. The project was supported in part by
a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of
New York.
Background
The world of the early twenty-first century displays three striking patterns:
increasing globalization, strong territorial attachments by citizens to their
homelands, and a persistence of violent conflicts over territorial stakes.
The coincidence of these patterns brings up the following questions for policymakers:
Does globalization provide incentives for dampening or resolving territorial conflicts?
Will the territorial reach of national law require redefinition?
Can strong territorial attachments to an overseas homeland produce the
conditions for resolving territorial conflicts rather than exacerbating them?
According
to panelist Barbara Walter, people have been predicting that territory,
or at least people’s
attachment to territory, would dissipate in a world of increasing globalization
and technological innovation. Surprisingly, over the last
20 years, territorial boundaries and territorial attachments have not
weakened. Instead, individuals and governments are as attached
to territory as they ever were. The number of wars fought by governments
to prevent regions from gaining territorial autonomy or independence
has increased over
the last 20 years.
How can this trend be explained and what are its implications?
The panelists offered insights into how the effect of globalization on
territoriality can best be managed to decrease rather than increase the incidence
of violence around the globe.
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The world of the early twenty-first century displays three striking patterns:
increasing globalization, strong territorial attachments by citizens to their
homelands, and a persistence of violent conflicts over territorial stakes.
The coincidence of these patterns brings up the following questions for policymakers: