De Facto States and Land-for-Peace Agreements

'Are there geographic solutions to peacefully resolving ongoing conflicts between the principles of self-determination and territorial integrity? Given repeated failures to implement power-sharing agreements, Berg and Kursanis pioneering work directs our attention to the problems and prospects for land for peace agreements.'--Scott Pegg, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), USA 'This is an extraordinarily timely book about secessionist conflicts, and the creation and persistence of quasi-independent states within the territories of recognised nation-states. Territorial revanchism, irredentism, and secessionism illuminate their well-chosen case studies. The territorial rules of the game are changing and they explain how, where and why.'--Klaus Dodds, Royal Holloway University of London, UK 'Land for peace agreements have fallen out of favour in modern international relations. The idea of trading territory to resolve longstanding disputes is seen as pass at best, if not an affront to norms of contemporary peace-making. But is this preventing the settlements of many conflicts? Using real case studies, this ground-breaking work opens up a much needed conceptual and practical debate about the role of land for agreements in contemporary conflict resolution practices.'--James Ker-Lindsay, London School Economics and Political Science, UK

Eiki Berg is Professor of International Relations at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Shpend Kursani is Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Introduction 1. Sovereignty contestations and emergence of de facto states 2. Territorial aspects of conflict settlements and the recognition conundrum 3. Bringing land-for-peace in the study of de facto states: An analytical framework 4. Lessons from the past: Land-for-peace in the ArabIsraeli conflict 5. KosovoSerbia land swap under mutual recognition 6. Exchanging occupied territories for a mutually recognised status of Nagorno-Karabakh 7. Territorial adjustments in Northern Cyprus: An accepted slice of an unaccepted chunk 8. The status of the Gali region in Abkhazia: A non-starter for negotiations Conclusion