ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between territorial disputes and peace in the context of whether globalization will produce an era of peace. It identifies the historical eras where major states have been at peace. The chapter finds, as the territorial explanation would expect, that peaceful periods are those with few territorial disputes. Human territoriality has a biological basis that we inherit from our fellow primates, so it is likely that some form of territorial organization will persist and along with it the propensity to defend territory with the use of force, if necessary. Believing that territoriality will disappear is not realistic. If the territorial explanation of war is correct, it would also be expected that periods of peace would be associated with learning how to handle territorial disputes in a less power politics fashion and that the end result of that would be a reduction in their probability of going to war.
