Under the League of Nations, the concept of territorial integrity was a principle of international law. Sovereign states had the right to defend themselves from external threats. The United Nations enshrined this in Article 2 (4) of its founding charter, which states,
“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
A nation’s borders are inviolable, and no outside nations are permitted to interfere with another nation’s citizens or, by force, to alter another nation’s boundaries.
Welcome to the 21st century, where Donald Trump and his American administration are proposing to ignore territorial integrity in the Russia-Ukraine war and reward the aggressor with lands belonging to the defender.
This is Munich 1938 all over again, but worse, a return to a past of great power competition and might makes right diplomacy. We all know where that eventually led, with examples such as Britain and France forcing the smaller nation, Czechoslovakia, to cede part of its territory to Nazi Germany without the Germans even firing a shot. The lack of shooting didn’t last long. A year later, the second global war of the 20th century was on.
Post-World War II, with the establishment of the United Nations and Article 2 (4), a repeat of the Munich scenario wasn’t supposed to happen. Before 1945 and the United Nations, the concept of territorial integrity was spotty. In the post-World War I 1925 Treaty of Locarno, the European signatories attempted to define it. But before that, territorial integrity was aspirational, not real.
Throughout Europe’s history, revising country boundary lines kept map and atlas makers busy. When Napoleon attempted to redraw Europe’s medieval boundaries and failed, the great powers of the continent in 1815 made a feeble attempt to restore the status quo. It didn’t last. A Prussia-led German unification and a similar movement in Italy had map makers redrawing boundaries that set the stage for World War I. After that European conflict went global a new treaty redrew the continent’s borders again.
In North America, First Nations lacked European-defined rules of territory. Then they were subjected to European colonization and subjugation by the United States that started with the initial geography of the thirteen colonies, then the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the 1846 Mexican-American War, the 1867 purchase of Alaska, and the British North America Act of 1867 that created Canada. The political map of North America had been forever changed.
Elsewhere, Europe, from the 17th to the early 20th century, ignored the sovereignty of other cultures and nations and divided Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America into colonies. Similar disrespect was attempted with China, while Japan aped European models to establish an Asia-Pacific colonial empire. Even the United States got into the act, first in Hawaii, and later in the Caribbean, and Panama.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Britain and its colonies lorded over 25% of the planet, a global empire ruled by a small island nation backed by a powerful navy. It was might-makes-right displayed. Then Nazi Germany and Japan used the same playbook to launch their claims to world empire, competing with the British, French, Soviets and Americans. Germany’s and Japan’s defeat and the founding of the United Nations established Article 2 (4), stating that violations of sovereignty by charter members were supposed to end.
By definition, military invasions, creeping annexation through settlements, and the displacement of populations by coercion, starvation, or force are all considered violations of Article 2 (4). Despite the UN’s noble aspirations, however, might makes right continues.
The Soviet Union held Eastern European states in its thrall until its collapse in 1990. China, post-World War II erupted into civil war which left the People’s Republic in control of mainland China and the Nationalists relegated to Taiwan in 1949. A United Nations vote partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish states followed by a series of wars that have defined the region for more than three-quarters of a century.
The remaining post-1945 boundary settlements saw rapid decolonization in much of Africa and Southeast Asia, and in areas where the colonial powers tried to hang on, wars of liberation. Africa’s present conflicts owe their roots to colonialism, where the national boundaries established by the colonizers have borne little resemblance to native cultural and tribal roots. Britain’s partitioning of the Indian subcontinent has proved to be similarly disruptive, creating an ongoing conflict to this day between Pakistan and India over boundaries and sovereignty.
Today, Article 2 (4) is increasingly put to the test. When the Soviet Union broke up between 1990 and 1991, fifteen new nations appeared. One of them was Ukraine. One was Russia. The current Russia-Ukraine war has the United States acting as a peacemaker by ignoring Article 2 (4), while the nations of the European Union fear any settlement favouring Russia will open the door to a return to the diplomacy of Europe’s past and two world wars, where tens of millions died fighting over boundary lines on maps rather than finding agreement on respecting territorial sovereignty. It would mean the restoration of might makes right in international relations, a validation of conquest, and a door to future wars and an apocalyptic nuclear ending.
