Interstate Identity Claims under the Territorial Integrity Norm
P11-3
Presented by: Sara Mitchell
Scholars have suggested that nation-states have developed a norm of territorial integrity, under which state borders are considered final and should not be challenged. If states are restricted from challenging borders, though, what does this mean for their support of their ethnic kinsmen abroad? We suggest that states should be less likely to make demands for the separation of their co-ethnics from a neighboring state as the norm strengthens, but that they should be more likely to make demands for better treatment of the co-ethnics within the state. We test this expectation with data from the ICOW Identity Claims data set, and find support using multiple measures of the strength of the territorial integrity norm.