8 Hotly Disputed Borders of the World

Table of Contents

Introduction
Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands, East China Sea
Kuril Islands
The Korean peninsula
Western Sahara
Antarctica
Israel/Palestine
Somaliland
Taiwan

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The East China, South China, and Yellow seas

In 1991 the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland, in the northwest part of Somalia, asserted its independence from the rest of the country. In 1998 a region in the northeast, the Puntland, declared itself “autonomous.”

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8 Hotly Disputed Borders of the World

Somaliland, the Korean peninsula, Western Sahara—all of these places are home to some of the most hotly disputed borders in the world.

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André Munro is a regular freelance contributor as well as a former editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Northwestern University) and has written numerous articles...

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38th parallelMilitary vehicles crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War.

Some borders, like that between the United States and Canada, are peaceful ones. Others are places of conflict caused by rivalries between countries or peoples, disputes over national resources, or disagreements about the past. Eight of the most contentious borders in the world are described in this list.

Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands, East China Sea

On the surface, the Senkaku (Chinese: Diaoyu) islands seem to offer very little to fight over beyond rocks and water. The dispute over these islands, controlled by Japan and claimed by China, intensified after oil and gas fields were found underneath. In 2012 the sale of one of the islands by a wealthy Japanese family to the Japanese government enraged the Chinese population and led to massive anti-Japanese riots. Considering the growing power and assertiveness of China in Asia, many experts warn that the tension over the Senkaku islands could develop into a more serious conflict.

Kuril Islands

Kraternaya BayThe summit of a partially submerged volcano forms the outline of Kraternaya Bay, Yankich Island, in the Kuril Islands of Russia.

The dispute over this volcano-intensive archipelago of 56 islands is the primary reason Japan and Russia have never signed a peace treaty to formalize the end of World War II. At the end of the war, the Soviet Union invaded the Kuril Islands, some of which Imperial Russia had previously controlled. While the transfer of the islands to the Soviet Union was included in the Yalta agreements, Japan continued to claim historical rights to the southernmost islands.

The Korean peninsula

Lest we forget, the Korean War never really came to an end. South and North Korea signed an armistice but no peace treaty, and the two countries continued to face each other in a nerve-racking geopolitical standstill.

Western Sahara

The indigenous inhabitants of Western Sahara, the Saharawis, have fought for their independence against Morocco since the 1970s. Their organization, the Polisario Front, has waged an armed insurgency but also shown its readiness to sit at the negotiation table. In 1991, both parties agreed to a peace proposal under the auspices of the United Nations. The peace proposal specified a referendum for the indigenous Saharawi to decide whether they wanted an independent Western Sahara under Polisario Front leadership or whether the territory would officially become part of Morocco. Peace, however, was not yet in the cards, as Morocco moved tens of thousands of settlers into the territory to influence the referendum results, and Polisario soldiers resumed their armed campaigns. Still, hope for a peaceful resolution remained.

Antarctica

A number of countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and Argentina, have made claims over the frozen continent of Antarctica, but these claims have not been recognized by the international community since the signature of the Antarctica Treaty in 1959. The treaty forbade countries from taking possession of any part of Antarctica with these solemn words: "in the interest of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord.” Some experts believe the discovery of precious natural resources could change the equation and revive countries’ claims to Antarctica. No word yet on a penguin independence movement.

Israel/Palestine

Impossible to ignore, the Israel-Palestine conflict is a source of insecurity for the Middle East and for the world at large.

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Somaliland

The modern borders of Africa are in large part the result of the competition between European colonial powers such as Britain and France for the control of the continent. During World War II, all the Somali territories were unified under British military administration, with the exception of French Somaliland. This process of unification continued after Somalia gained its independence in 1960. At the end of the 1980s, however, the country was shattered by the beginning of a decades-long civil war, and Somaliland, a region in the north on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, declared its independence in 1991. The Republic of Somaliland, however, remained unrecognized by the international community.

Taiwan

After the Japanese defeat in World War II, the island of Taiwan reverted to China. The Chinese government itself, however, was soon overthrown on the mainland by the People’s Liberation Army of Mao Zedong, and the new communist state took the name the People’s Republic of China. The nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek went into exile on the island, which it continued to rule as the Republic of China (ROC). While the People’s Republic of China claims sovereignty over the “rogue province” of Taiwan, the ROC still regards itself as the legitimate government of China on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

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state

Table of Contents

Introduction
Historical conceptions
- Greek and Roman precedents
- Machiavelli and Bodin
- Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
- Hegel
- Bentham and Marx
Contemporary views

References & Edit History Related Topics

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state summary

Politics, Law & Government Politics & Political Systems

state

sovereign political entity

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Last Updated: Jul 8, 2025 • Article History

Related Topics:: international relations; constitution; nation-state; sovereignty; utopia

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Historical conceptions

Greek and Roman precedents

The history of the Western state begins in ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle wrote of the polis, or city-state, as an ideal form of association, in which the whole community’s religious, cultural, political, and economic needs could be satisfied. This city-state, characterized primarily by its self-sufficiency, was seen by Aristotle as the means of developing morality in the human character. The Greek idea corresponds more accurately to the modern concept of the nation—i.e., a population of a fixed area that shares a common language, culture, and history—whereas the Roman res publica, or commonwealth, is more similar to the modern concept of the state. The res publica was a legal system whose jurisdiction extended to all Roman citizens, securing their rights and determining their responsibilities. With the fragmentation of the Roman system, the question of authority and the need for order and security led to a long period of struggle between the warring feudal lords of Europe.

Machiavelli and Bodin

It was not until the 16th century that the modern concept of the state emerged, in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli (Italy) and Jean Bodin (France), as the centralizing force whereby stability might be regained. In The Prince, Machiavelli gave prime importance to the durability of government, sweeping aside all moral considerations and focusing instead on the strength—the vitality, courage, and independence—of the ruler. For Bodin, his contemporary, power was not sufficient in itself to create a sovereign; rule must comply with morality to be durable, and it must have continuity—i.e., a means of establishing succession. Bodin’s theory was the forerunner of the 17th-century doctrine known as the divine right of kings, whereby monarchy became the predominate form of government in Europe. It created a climate for the ideas of the 17th-century reformers like John Locke in England and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France, who began to reexamine the origins and purposes of the state.

Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau

For Locke and Rousseau, as well as for Locke’s English predecessor Thomas Hobbes, the state reflected the nature of the human beings who created it. The “natural condition” of man, said Hobbes, is self-seeking and competitive. Man subjects himself to the rule of the state as the only means of self-preservation whereby he can escape the brutish cycle of mutual destruction that is otherwise the result of his contact with others.

For Locke, the human condition is not so gloomy, but the state again springs from the need for protection—in this case, of inherent rights. Locke said that the state is the social contract by which individuals agree not to infringe on each other’s “natural rights” to life, liberty, and property, in exchange for which each man secures his own “sphere of liberty.”

Rousseau’s ideas reflect an attitude far more positive in respect of human nature than either Hobbes or Locke. Rather than the right of a monarch to rule, Rousseau proposed that the state owed its authority to the general will of the governed. For him, the nation itself is sovereign, and the law is none other than the will of the people as a whole. Influenced by Plato, Rousseau recognized the state as the environment for the moral development of humanity. Man, though corrupted by his civilization, remained basically good and therefore capable of assuming the moral position of aiming at the general welfare. Because the result of aiming at individual purposes is disagreement, a healthy (noncorrupting) state can exist only when the common good is recognized as the goal.