Territorial Dispute

Territorial disputes are conflicts rooted in competing claims to land or maritime zones. They can involve borders, sovereignty, or control of natural resources and may be pursued through legal, diplomatic, or military methods. Territorial disputes often carry the risk of escalation into interstate conflict.

A woman stands amid the wreckage of a tent holding a prayer mat.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Type: Territorial DisputeTerrorism
Impact on U.S.: Significant
Status: Unchanging

Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel—killing over 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages—triggered an Israeli military campaign that killed over 70,000 Palestinian civilians and fighters and displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza. An October 2025 ceasefire secured the release of all remaining hostages and established a technocratic Palestinian governing committee. Hamas has dissolved its Gaza government but refused to disarm, citing ongoing Israeli strikes.

A resident carries her belongings past a police officer as she flees from Sur district, which is partially under curfew, in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey on January 27, 2016.

Conflict Between Turkey and Armed Kurdish Groups

Type: Territorial Dispute
Impact on U.S.: Limited
Status: Improving

In 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced its intention to disarm and dissolve, potentially ending its four-decade-long insurgency against the Turkish state that is estimated to have killed forty thousand people. The peace process has since entered a period of stagnation, with the PKK carrying out a symbolic weapons handover in Iraq, but Kurdish parties accuse Ankara of failing to follow through on promised political and legal reforms.

Soldiers stand at attention in front of mountains.

Tensions Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Type: Territorial Dispute
Impact on U.S.: Limited
Status: Improving

Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive ended the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, forcing the enclave’s dissolution and the flight of over one hundred thousand Armenians. A U.S.-brokered summit in August 2025 produced a joint peace declaration and an initialed peace agreement, with a planned transit corridor through southern Armenia to be constructed in 2026. Full ratification hinges on Armenia amending its constitution to remove territorial claims, a process tied to a 2027 referendum.