The Effect of Identity Conceptions on Attitudes about Territorial Disputes

• In Event: Poster Session: Innovations in the Study of Foreign Policy

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the effect of differing identity conceptions on attitudes about territorial disputes. Previous research suggests that disputes over land borders solidify in-group boundaries among citizens in claimant states. What is less well understood, however, is how the content of individuals’ identity conceptions (that is, what social identity group people most closely associate with) influences attitudes about international conflict. We argue that citizens with strong supra-national identities are less likely to hold hard line views in disputes over land borders. By contrast, citizens whose primary identity attachment is to their own nation have a higher propensity to favor confrontational foreign policies. Our statistical analysis is based on original survey data, collected in Central and Latin America in early 2019. Our questionnaire contains a wide range of items about attitudes towards territorial disputes, conceptions about national identity, and general demographics. By exploring the relationship between individual-level identity conceptions and attitudes about territorial disputes this paper adds to a growing literature in the field of international relations.

Authors

• Florian Justwan, University of Idaho

• Sarah Fisher, Emory & Henry College