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CIAO DATE: 9/5/2006
Uncommon Ground: Indivisible Territory and the Politics of Legitimacy
Stacie Goddard
February 2005
Center for International Studies University of Southern California
Abstract
Indivisible territory is all too frequent in international politics.1 In Jerusalem, many Israelis “insist that a united Jerusalem will be the eternal capital of the Jewish state,” whereas Palestinians contend that any deal excluding sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is “an unacceptable compromise…[that] will make their blood boil.”2 India and Pakistan’s inability to compromise over Kashmir has increased tensions between these nuclear powers, and well before the age of nationalism Maria-Thérèse refused to negotiate with Frederick the Great over the territory of Silesia.
Indivisibility is thus a central element of international conflict. In many cases, the very presence of an indivisible issue leads to negotiation failure.3 But the irony is that as intractable as indivisible conflict seems, it is also malleable: territory that appears divisible at one time may prove indivisible in another, and vice versa. Jerusalem was not always treated as indivisible. While Israeli politicians pledge to maintain Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of Jerusalem, earlier leaders were willing to divide the Holy City. Ireland too became indivisible—unable to be ruled by both the British and Irish— only in the 20th century.
