Burak KADERCAN, Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict

Looking back over recent years, wars rooted in territorial disputes have increasingly shaped international politics, from the 2020 Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict and the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War to Israel’s 2023 incursion into Gaza and the 2025 Thailand-Cambodia border conflict. Furthermore, United States (US) President Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland, Panama, and Canada have cast doubt on the existing borders and sovereignty of neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has kept Taiwan at the forefront of China’s foreign policy agenda. Taken together, these developments demonstrate that the notion that territorial issues have ceased to generate conflict is untenable, and that territorial disputes will remain central to the international agenda. Against this backdrop, Burak Kadercan’s Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict offers a timely and highly relevant analysis.