1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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Identity, Territory, and Self-Determination: Territory
Factors Underlying Potential National and
International Conflict Territory by itself is a passive concept. People, by
their beliefs, decisions, and actions, give meaning to
territory. Territory thus is not; rather, it becomes! It is
David B. Knight true that many people obtain meaning from "their"
Dean of Social Sciences territory and the landscape within it by believing that
University of Guelph the territory and its landscape are living entities that
are already filled with meaning. And it is true that
such meanings may be reflected in a people's cultural
The State ecology, the spatial patterning of their settlement and
land use systems, their naming of places, their patterns
States' remain the principal territorial framework for of movement, and perhaps in reverential beliefs they
international society. Whereas all States are legally hold about specific parts of the landscape around
equal within the international system, in geographical them. To suggest that these meanings are simply fig-
terms there are great differences within and between ments of the collective imagination-parts of the
States, including differences that find reflection in the "geographies of the mind"-is to be radical, at least
way individual States may be perceived as partici- for those people who accept the apparent truth of such
pants in the system (Cohen 1991; Knight, 1993). meanings. Meanings gained from territory-which are
really attributions to .the territory-reflect a cultural
The State, a physical and legal entity, is a bounded relationship with the territory. Consider, for instance,
container for the contents of a particular portion of the the powerful links most US citizens have to Washing-
earth's surface, which includes the people, their gov- ton, DC, where the human-created capital landscape
emnment, resources, and means for communication serves as an important symbolic place for members of
and movement. The State, theoretically, is "the chief the American nation.
custodian of overall social order; it is monitor, comp-
troller, arbitrator" of all people, things, and processes A State's territory is thus not value-free; it holds dif-
operating within the delimited bounds (Greer and ferent kinds of meanings for its people versus-but
Orleans, cited in Knight, 1982). Further, as Johnston from quite different perspectives and degrees of
(1982) has observed, the State acts as the promoter of knowledge, insight, and appreciation-those who do
accumulation, as the legitimator of capitalism, and .as not belong. People of the State will revere and gain
the creator of social consensus and order. In order to strength from their territory. People will see certain
perform these three roles, each State develops its own structures or specific locations, such as statues, capital
instruments and mechanisms by which the structural cities, battlefields, and even the territory as a whole, as
links between social formation and the State can func- sacred or at least very special. In sum, territory is a
tion hierarchically and so enable the reproduction of social construction (Williams and Smith, 1983).
the system. If it is accepted that territory "becomes," then States
The State is thus itself a geographical factor because are not geographical givens. No State exists because
things happen that have spatial consequences as a of firm geographical factors. States and their spatial
result of decisions and actions by State agents and parameters-dimensions, shapes, and boundaries-
institutions. States' actions pertain to their own and exist because human actions and various local and
others' territories. An essential quality of statehood is world economic-political-social processes have led to
territory; all States have territory that is bounded, for- their creation and continuation. These actions and pro-
mally or informally, by human decisions and actions. cesses occur in specific time-space settings and so
' State, with a capital "s" herein, refers to an internationally recog-
nized independent, self-governing territory, sometimes called a
country. State with a lowercase "s" refers to a politico-territorial
unit within a State, such as Minnesota within the United States.
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