Is Partition an Effective Way to End Conflict?

1367 Words3 Pages

Berg and Ben-Porat state that territoriality is “a form of behavior that uses territory as an instrument for securing a particular outcome” (pg 30, 2008) Territory can be maintained as long as the integrity of the agreements made are upheld, if they are not this can lead to violent conflicts within an area. (Berg, Ben-Porat, 2008) The meaning of partition is the dividing up a country through one or more territories to remedy new political borders in order for ethnic conflict to be ceased. There has been numerous cases made for and against the idea of partition with many controversial results being seen from countries who have undertaken a partition, under the impression that it would end the ethnic conflict within. A nation is something that is born not something that can be made by the political powers involved, nationalism describes the loyalty one has to its nation, thus complicating the situation of deciding whether partition may be an appropriate solution to violent conflicts as a nation is not seen to be something that can be broken apart. (Fearon, 2004) Many have argued that lasting civil peace is not possible by sorting what is said to be known as a “true” state into divided states and borders. (Fearon, 2004) The idea of a sovereign state is to be whole within a basis with no interference from other bodies. Partition has been described as an employment which would create separate sovereign bodies where each party involved could execute their own ethnic or other views. (Berg, Bon-Porat, 2008) It has been labeled as a solution that is of a “last resort” that leads to an agreeable point between territorial expression and self-determination. (Berg, Ben-Porat, 2008) Partitions that do not involve some sort of separation of t...

... middle of paper ...

...tions and Nationalism 14.1 (2008): 29-37.

• James Fearon, ‘Separatist Wars, Partition, and World Order’, Security Studies, 13 (4), 2004 pp. 394-415.

• Fraser, T. G. (1984) Partition in Ireland, India and Palestine: theory and practice. London: Macmillan

• Horowitz, M. C., Weisiger, A. and Johnson, C. 2009. The limits to partition. International Security, 33 (4), pp. 203--210.

• Johnson, C. (2008). Partitioning to peace: Sovereignty, demography, and ethnic civil wars. International Security, 32(4), 140-170.

• Kaufmann, C. (1996). Possible and impossible solutions to ethnic civil wars. International security, 20(4), 136-175.

• Kumar, R. (1997). The Troubled History of Partition. Foreign Affairs 76, 22.

• Sambanis, N. and Schulhofer-Wohl, J. 2009. What's in a line? Is partition a solution to civil war?.International Security, 34 (2), pp. 82--118.

Open Document