TY - BOOK ID - 78108966 TI - Good Fences, Bad Neighbors PY - 2011 SN - 1283344769 9786613344762 0226031373 9780226031378 6613344761 9781283344760 9780226031354 9780226031361 0226031357 0226031365 PB - Chicago University of Chicago Press DB - UniCat KW - Boundaries KW - Nation-building. KW - Stabilization and reconstruction (International relations) KW - State-building KW - Political development KW - Borders (Geography) KW - Boundary lines KW - Frontiers KW - Geographical boundaries KW - International boundaries KW - Lines, Boundary KW - Natural boundaries KW - Perimeters (Boundaries) KW - Political boundaries KW - Borderlands KW - Territory, National KW - Political aspects. KW - borders, international, conflict, conquest, annexation, homeland, territory, politics, democracy, diplomacy, war, stability, peace, nonfiction, history, instability, state building, competition, boundaries, nation, brandenburg, prussia, argentina, poland, lithuania, lebanon, congo, israel, balkans, middle east, africa, national identity, coup, allegiance, military, invasion. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78108966 AB - Border fixity-the proscription of foreign conquest and the annexation of homeland territory-has, since World War II, become a powerful norm in world politics. This development has been said to increase stability and peace in international relations. Yet, in a world in which it is unacceptable to challenge international borders by force, sociopolitically weak states remain a significant source of widespread conflict, war, and instability. In this book, Boaz Atzili argues that the process of state building has long been influenced by external territorial pressures and competition, with the absence of border fixity contributing to the evolution of strong states-and its presence to the survival of weak ones. What results from this norm, he argues, are conditions that make internal conflict and the spillover of interstate war more likely. Using a comparison of historical and contemporary case studies, Atzili sheds light on the relationship between state weakness and conflict. His argument that under some circumstances an international norm that was established to preserve the peace may actually create conditions that are ripe for war is sure to generate debate and shed light on the dynamics of continuing conflict in the twenty-first century. ER -