Study Of Contemporary Middle Eastern Countries Border And Territorial Disputes

Historically, the bad natural environment and the unique nomadic lifestyle of living by water and grass partly led to people's indifferent concept of Territories and Boundaries in the Middle East. However, with the introduction of nationalism, people gradually get a new understanding to these concepts of nation-state and linear boundary which accurately limit scope of territorial sovereignty in the Middle East. Hence, with independence of the Middle Eastern countries, driven by the idea of nation-state and affected by interests and other factors, states started endless disputes around the problem of border and territory. In view of the lack of special and comprehensive research on territorial disputes and the main focus on the analysis of the Arab-Israeli dispute and other hot issues in domestic and abroad academic circles, author intends to adopt the research method of area synthesis analysis and case studies from the perspective of the region, doing a systematic research into territorial disputes among the Middle Eastern countries, aiming at revealing the reasons, analyzing the impacts and discussing the settlement of disputes, rather than limiting to a description of territorial disputes themselves.In order to resolve the territorial disputes, we must first figure out the reasons for the disputes. Despite territory is the most powerful element of annotation to national sovereignty, however, the territorial disputes are obviously not the contest with pure territory, but directly related to the strategic position of the territory itself and resources in contested territories. For example, the Aegean dispute between Greece and Turkey, the Golan Heights issue between Israel and Syrian are closely related to the strategic value of the Aegean and the Golan Heights themselves. Again, the territorial issues among the Gulf monarchies can fundamentally be regarded as resource-based disputes. However, the idea is the basis of interest building. Territorial disputes have a lot to do with concepts of history, nation and interest of leaders and people of countries in the Middle East. In addition, the intervention of foreign forces often triggered or exacerbated territorial disputes among the relevant countries.Effects of territorial issues among the Middle Eastern countries are important and multi-faceted. From the content of the impact, it involves politics and economy and so on. From the scope of the effect, include nation, region and globe three levels. The reasons for territorial disputes are complex in the Middle East, so the solution of issues does not only mean the division of territory itself and the distribution of interests, but also involves in change of concepts of the related countries and adoption of appropriate approaches. Therefore, elimination of territorial disputes needs some subjective and objective conditions and an appropriate way accepted by all parties concerned, as well as mediation of outside forces in the Middle East. Some territorial disputes are extremely drastic, the parties are almost unable to solve them, under the circumstances, this kind of catalysis of external conditions appears particularly important. The countries concerned must be based on national equality, mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win, and peaceful coexistence and so on, get rid of border disputes by a serious consultation and mutual trust and co-operation together so that the boundary will not become the obstacle to communication and the root of conflicts, but only is a symbol of the nation-state and a geographical area of effective exercise of the power of nation-state.Territorial disputes have some diachronic and synchronic features in the Middle East. From a diachronic perspective, ideology factors and security factors and the intensity of territorial disputes are different during the Cold War and after the Cold War. From a synchronic perspective, compared with other regions, territorial disputes possess universality, complexity, explosivity and globality and so on in the Middle East. Additionally, the pan-nationalism affects territorial issues in different ways in different regions.