13 Borders on the Brink of War

The demilitarization of islands in the Eastern Aegean Sea was agreed to by Greece and Turkiye and has been reaffirmed in various treaties, conventions, and documents since 1914. As recently as September 2022, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Greece of occupying islands in the Aegean Sea that are supposed to be demilitarized and arming them, a charge Athens rejected. This is not the only dispute between the two NATO member countries, with other issues including overflights, hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, as well as ethnically split Cyprus (see below).

An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, between delegates of the United Nations Command on one side, and representatives of North Korea and China on the other. The agreement created a 4,000-meter wide buffer zone between North and South Korea. It took 158 meetings over two years to reach the accord. The armistice may have stopped hostilities, but it is not a peace agreement. There have been skirmishes and exchange of fire over the years. Most recently, in December 2022, South Korea claimed North Korea flew drones over the border, and in 2020, the two countries exchanged gunfire over the DMZ.

The middle of Taiwan Strait between mainland China and the island of Taiwan, also called the Davis Line, serves as the de facto border between the two countries. The area has been a hot spot since the 1950s, when China bombed islands controlled by Taiwan, leading the United States to intervene. The ongoing Chinese threat to seize the islands and invade Taiwan has drawn the U.S. closer to Taiwan. In January 1955, Congress passed the “Formosa Resolution” that gave President Dwight Eisenhower authority to defend Taiwan and the islands. In recent months, China has flown jets over the dividing line and continues to threaten to invade Taiwan.

The Antarctic Treaty, signed in Washington on Dec. 1, 1959, was entered into by 12 nations whose scientists were conducting work on the massive landmass during the international geophysical year of 1957-58. Eventually, 56 countries signed on to the accord. Among its provisions are that Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. Article II stipulates freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and cooperation toward that end, while article III requires that scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available.

The India-China border is among the most volatile and disputed in the world. The world’s two most populous nations signed bilateral treaties in 1993 regarding the 2,100 mile-long disputed border in the Himalayan region. The agreements are aimed at maintaining peace and tranquility along the line of actual control in the India-China border areas, among others. A 1996 agreement prohibits the use of firearms near the border. The two countries fought a war in 1962, and frequent border flare-ups continue to occur.

In 2020, the deadliest clash in decades between the two nuclear powers, one reportedly fought with clubs, sticks, and rocks, left at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers dead. Another hand-to-hand skirmish in December 2022 left several injured on both sides.

Every so often, violence erupts along the Green Line that divides ethnic Greeks and Turks on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The U.N. controls most of the nearly 112-mile long buffer zone established in 1964 and reaffirmed 10 years later after a ceasefire between the sides. The line goes through the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, which according to the BBC is the last physically divided city on Earth. Parts of the zone are inhabited by farms or villages, and people may enter the area freely. Some sections contain deserted villages and shops. Pyla, in the eastern part of the buffer zone, is the only village where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live side by side.

The Outer Space Treaty, crafted under the auspices of the United Nations, was signed by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States and includes 112 nations. The accord provided the framework on international space law.

Some of the principles included are: the exploration of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries; outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all nations; outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty; states shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space; the moon and other celestial bodies shall be used just for peaceful purposes; countries shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

The region of Kashmir, which includes the areas of Jammu and Kashmir, contains 18 million people, most of them Muslim. It has been disputed by India and Pakistan since those nations gained independence from Great Britain in 1947. India administers the area south of the Line of Control, a 450 mile-long military control line, while Pakistan oversees northwestern Kashmir.

The two nations fought another war in 1965, and yet another in 1971, after which Pakistan and India Forged the Simla Pact, and vowed to resolve their differences by peaceful means. The agreement has not ended the tension between Pakistan and India, both of which hold nuclear weapons. A limited war, the Kargil War, erupted in 1999, and deadly violations occur regularly.

Following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the United Nations supervised an agreement brokered by the United States and the Soviet Union in which Israeli and Syrian forces would become disengaged and return beyond buffer zones in the Golan Heights established after the ceasefire. Israel and Syria are separated by a 155-square-mile buffer zone monitored by the U.N. The eastern end of the buffer zone, the Bravo Line, is where Syria begins. To the west of the buffer zone is the Alpha Line, where Israel starts. United Nations Disengagement Forces are stationed throughout the zone to oversee the agreement.

The peacekeeping group Multinational Force & Observers is tasked with supervising the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty of Peace that has been in effect since 1982. The treaty followed the historic agreement between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin known as the Camp David Accords. The treaty created three security zones in the Sinai in Egypt and one one in Israel along the international border. The accord stipulates limitations on military forces and equipment in each zone.

The border between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine has been a hot spot for more than three decades. In 1990, residents of the easternmost area of the landlocked nation sought international recognition as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, known as Transnistria. Transnistria is a strip of land between Moldova and Ukraine with only about 500,000 residents. Territorial claims were disputed after the demise of the Soviet Union and war broke out in 1992 between the new Republic of Moldova and Transnistria in cities along the Dniester River. Russia, in support of Transnistria, intervened militarily and halted the violence. The Russian presence has allowed Transnistria a degree of autonomy.

In 2013, Sudan and South Sudan agreed to withdraw their troops from a 14-mile-wide demilitarized zone in an accord brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. South Sudan came into being in 2011 following the results of a referendum and the end of a ruinous war that killed nearly 2 million people. Even so, the two countries have disputed their borders and terms of oil exports.

The landlocked mountainous region in the South Caucasus known as Nagorno-Karabakh has been a bone of contention between former Soviet Union republics Armenia and Azerbaijan. Fighting over the region became so intense that Russia had to step in and stop six weeks of bloody fighting in 2020. Nagorno-Karabakh is within the borders of Azerbaijan, but the population is mostly Armenian. The sides have been in conflict since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.