Interstate territorial conflict has seen a sharp downward trend since the end of the Cold War. This same trend has continued for claim militarization in general. However, the overall number of...Show moreInterstate territorial conflict has seen a sharp downward trend since the end of the Cold War. This same trend has continued for claim militarization in general. However, the overall number of states since the end of the World War Two has grown. More territorial disputes have come with the increasing number of states but not increasing military conflict over those disputes. This phenomenon is seen as a consequence of a lack of acceptance in the idea of conquest between states and the creation of the Territorial Integrity Norm. The overall trend has continued into the 21st Century but some fatal interstate territorial conflicts do still occur. This thesis asks, what leads to fatal interstate territorial conflict in the 21st Century (2002-2016) despite a strong trend away from fatal conflict over territory between states and how effective is fatal force? A comparative case study examining four fatal territorial conflicts that occurred within the timeline attempts to address this by analyzing the interaction of factors that lead up to a fatal event. It also explores the outcome of such action. This thesis finds that fatal action is the result of a complex interplay of domestic motives and a lack of external costs. When force is used, its effectiveness to assert control over disputed territory is limited but force can be effective in reigniting stalled diplomatic negotiations.Show less
Since the events of 9/11 and the war on terror, there has been a rise in Islamist terrorism and its subcategory of home-grown terrorism, where the perpetrators of terrorist violence are born and...Show moreSince the events of 9/11 and the war on terror, there has been a rise in Islamist terrorism and its subcategory of home-grown terrorism, where the perpetrators of terrorist violence are born and raised in the countries of the attack. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of home-grown terrorism by offering an application of social identity theory to the phenomenon’s relevant identity discourses. To do so, this thesis sets out to deconstruct and analyse the significant identity discourses constructed by British government officials and Islamist terrorist organisations. This thesis identifies a push and pull dynamic between British and Islamist identity discourses where vulnerable British Muslims feel alienated and pushed away from British society’s emphasis on assimilative secular, liberal democratic values and instead find the appeal of the global Muslim community, the ummah, as an inclusionary, unifying sense of identity. Certainly, terrorism and home-grown terrorism are complex phenomena without single explanations, but this thesis puts forwards identity as a complementary explanation for home-grown terrorism as it ties in existing explanations such as historical and political grievances and socioeconomic inequalities. Because identity is often constructed on an exclusionary basis, where an individual must be one or the other and never both, social identity theory’s ideas of social comparison and positive group worth explain the need for terrorists to harm other identities to increase its own identity’s social worth.Show less
