ABSTRACT
Competition for territorial control did not begin with states, but the Westphalian system provides a geopolitical and legal framework in which control has often been contested. Some of this may be encouraged by the system’s very nature: it relies on fixed national borders that give states their territorial identities, but these borders can constrain the states as dynamic entities whose evolving territorial interests may not remain aligned with their geographical dimensions. 1 The competition for territorial control between states has generally been resolved through physical confrontation, diplomacy or adjudication or a combination of these. Today, regardless of the means by which such a conflict is settled, its resolution entails the affirmation of title to the territory – the legal construct that legitimizes the exercise of territorial authority.
