Tuesday, December 28, 2010

BORDER DISPUTES SOLUTION: Where is the limit

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

Some worst border disputes, least talked about'

Where is the limit? History witnesses how ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided the world into separate political entities. The world which stretches over 2,50,000 km, is divided by 322 land borders into 194 different sovereign states and 71 other dependent entities. Many of these 322 lands and 430 bilateral marine borders are yet to be properly defined which, on quite occasions, has led to severe border disputes. Moreover, unexplored resources, competition between nations and their expansion policies have just added more complexity to it. What is more horrifying is that disputed border areas often attract illegal drug trafficking, migration, human trafficking and many more. However, there are a few territorial disputes that have grabbed some attention by media and the international community and created chaos while many more which pose equal danger have been least talked about. Here is an effort to divulge some of them.

Perhaps, one of the biggest of such disputes is of sovereignty over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group - the area which is known to Japanese as the "Northern Territories" while Russians call it the "Southern Kuril Islands." The islands, initially occupied by the USSR in the early 1945 and is presently governed by Russia, have always been claimed by Japan. This dispute has greatly hampered the bilateral relationship between these two influential nations. The next in line is the conflict between UK and Argentina over the issue of controlling the Falkland Islands. The dispute became so severe that it finally led to war between them. The 74 days long war claimed 907 lives in total in 1982. However, the controversial Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders dispute was not less notorious. It has encouraged money laundering, smuggling, illegal arms trade and narcotics trafficking. Further, it became a hot spot for fund raising by extremist groups. The next is the Spratly Islands which have always been the bone of contention between Asian nations including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and China. The islands does not have much economic importance in itself but they become of extreme importance when it comes to establishing international borders for the neighbouring countries. In South Asia, though the Kashmir issue grabbed much attention, the Pak-Afghan open order poses greater threat. It became base for non-state actors. Moreover, the Indo-Bangladesh or Indo-Bhutan border areas are equally dangerous. Moreover, the decade long border disputes led the illegal migration of thousands of people in countries like Uganda, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Rwanda etc.

The issue of border disputes has caused more damage than expected. The Israel-Palestine, Indo-Pak, Indo-China, Kosovo-Serbia wars are results of this. Solution? Certainly not war! Negotiations are a must. The way the Canada-US border dispute or the UK-US Oregon boundary dispute were solved, through negotiations, others should come forward, if not for the sake of the world, then, for the sake of themselves!

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Run after passion and not money, says Arindam Chaudhuri
IIPM Lucknow – News article in Economic Times and Times of India

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