Border and territorial disputes remain a potent source of conflict in many parts of the world. At the time of the first edition of this book in 1982, actively prosecuted disputes remained largely confined to the developing world. However, one consequence of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was to re-introduce the spectre of territorial conflict to Europe, where the historic claims and grievances which had ravaged the continent through to World War II had effectively been frozen during the Cold War era. Wars resulted in the Balkans and the Caucasus, while other historic issues re-surfaced in more muted form.
The present volume retains the principle of including coverage of disputes settled in recent years, ongoing active disputes, and historically significant disputes that are currently dormant but remain unresolved with the potential to re-erupt. As the record of major wars in the twentieth century linked directly to border and territorial disputes shows, while such disputes are perhaps fewer than conflicts arising from domestic insurgencies, their potential for large-scale violence, engaging rival states and their allies, can be vastly greater.
