• 2 months ago
Whatever happened to "love thy neighbor"? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most disputed international borders that could - and have - lead to massive and violent conflagrations.

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00:00I don't understand what people who lived here were accused of.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09And today we're looking at the most disputed international borders
00:12that could and have led to massive and violent conflagrations.
00:16The enemy, I thought they were just like kids with guns,
00:18but they seem to know what they're doing.
00:20Yeah.
00:21They can fight?
00:22Yeah, they can fight.
00:24China and India.
00:26China says India's recent construction of roads, tunnels
00:29and the refurbishment of airfields in the area along the border
00:32changed the status quo.
00:34The border conflict between China and India primarily revolves around two regions.
00:39Aksai Chin, which is largely controlled by China,
00:42and Arunachal Pradesh, administered by India.
00:45Tensions date back to the 1950s,
00:47though the region was mostly ignored until the Chinese annexation of Tibet.
00:51All of that made the prospect of agreeing on a common border more difficult.
00:55And since then, it's never become a reality.
00:58The dispute over these regions escalated into full-blown war in 1962,
01:03ending in victory for China
01:05and the establishment of a notional demarcation called the Line of Actual Control.
01:10Despite a 1993 agreement to maintain peace along this line,
01:14sporadic skirmishes have continued.
01:16This came to a head in 2020,
01:18when clashes in the Galwan River Valley resulted in casualties on both sides.
01:23The dispute remains unresolved,
01:25and both nations maintain a heavy military presence at the border.
01:29India says at least 20 of its soldiers were killed
01:32after hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley.
01:36China and Japan.
01:38This dispute has often stirred nationalist sentiment.
01:412012 saw violent anti-Japanese protests in many Chinese cities,
01:47after Japan's government brought three of the islands from their private owners.
01:51The Senkaku Islands dispute between China and Japan
01:54centers on a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
01:58Although Japan currently administers the islands,
02:01China also asserts ownership, basing its claims on historical grounds.
02:05In reality, China only laid formal claims in 1971,
02:09three years after possible oil reserves were found in the area.
02:13America announced the Senkaku are Japanese before and after World War II.
02:18China's way of doing this is illegal.
02:20Therefore, they won't get the island.
02:22Even so, tensions did not rise until the 1990s,
02:25and they seem to have only gotten worse.
02:27The conflict has resulted in periodic military posturing,
02:30with both nations deploying naval and air forces to assert control.
02:34This standoff carries significant regional and global implications,
02:38especially given the U.S. defense commitments to Japan.
02:41The Senkaku Islands remain a flashpoint in East Asia,
02:45with tensions likely to escalate.
02:47With both sides planning further visits to the islands,
02:50tensions between Asia's two biggest economies
02:53aren't likely to ease any time soon.
02:57To understand the DMZ, we need to go back to the end of World War II.
03:01The Soviets and Americans divided Korea, just like they did Germany.
03:05The Korean War, which began in 1950,
03:08concluded three years later with an armistice,
03:11but it never officially came to an end.
03:13As a result, the border between North and South Korea,
03:16known as the Demilitarized Zone,
03:18remains one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
03:21Despite its name, the DMZ is anything but demilitarized.
03:25This concrete slab is literally the border.
03:27We're shooting it from the northern side.
03:2917 inches by 5 inches.
03:31Concrete. That's it. That marks the border.
03:33It's been here since 1953.
03:35Heavily fortified with barbed wire, landmines, and armed troops,
03:40the DMZ stretches 160 miles across the Korean Peninsula.
03:44The threat of renewed hostilities still looms large, however,
03:47as the two Koreas have engaged in numerous skirmishes
03:50and provocations over the years.
03:52This border is one of the reasons why the U.S. won't support a ban on landmines.
03:57There have been a number of atrocities over the years.
03:59Many U.N. soldiers, also South Korean soldiers, have lost their lives here.
04:04Sudan and South Sudan.
04:06There is no tribe that will make a country.
04:10So I want to tell my soldiers that please refrain from this tribal war.
04:15The border conflict between Sudan and South Sudan
04:18is rooted in decades of civil war, ethnic tensions, and greed.
04:22After South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011,
04:26territorial issues lingered on,
04:28with one of the many contested areas being the oil-rich region of Abyei.
04:32Both nations have heavily militarized the border,
04:35where tension often erupts into gunfire.
04:39Will the rebels be able to return home one day?
04:41Will the rebels be able to recapture the lost areas?
04:44Skirmishes and cross-border raids are common,
04:47leading to frequent and massive displacement of civilians.
04:50Greed for the oil fields, combined with ethnic friction,
04:53has turned this border into one of the most dangerous in Africa.
04:57Despite international mediation efforts,
04:59no lasting agreement on the border relations has been reached,
05:02and this instability threatens to spread throughout the region.
05:06It was a great loss, not for the SPLM,
05:11not for the South, but for the Sudan and for Africa.
05:15China, Southeast Asia, and most of the South Pacific.
05:19The Chinese have turned the South China Sea into a demolition derby,
05:25repeatedly ramming Philippine ships.
05:28The South China Sea conflict is one of the world's most fractious.
05:32China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan
05:38each claim parts of the region.
05:40The rationale is clear.
05:42The South China Sea is a strategically crucial gold mine,
05:45rich in natural resources like oil and gas reserves.
05:49More importantly, it's a vital route in pan-Pacific trade,
05:52with over $3 trillion worth of goods and services passing through annually.
05:57So you hear the fishermen complaining of Chinese aggressive action
06:01and denying them the ability to fish in our own exclusive economic zone,
06:07in our own waters.
06:08China has ratcheted up the tensions by physically expanding their territory
06:13through the construction of artificial islands,
06:15which are then converted into military bases.
06:18The dispute is further complicated by the United States,
06:21whose involvement in pan-Pacific trade has led it to conduct
06:24freedom of navigation operations to challenge China's claims.
06:28But if we keep on getting it wrong,
06:30it may well be China's navy taking safe harbor in these waters.
06:36He established a military unit for the region
06:38and presented a new official state map,
06:41which includes Essequibo, paving the way for oil exploration.
06:44The territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana
06:47over the Essequibo region dates back to the 19th century.
06:50The conflict originated in colonial-era claims,
06:53with Venezuela insisting to this day
06:56that the 1899 ruling granting the island to Guyana is invalid.
07:00By a strange coincidence,
07:02Essequibo happens to be blessed with abundant natural resources.
07:06Those resources have been at the heart of recent tensions,
07:09particularly after large reserves of oil were discovered off Guyana's coast.
07:13Essequibo region contributes to the country's economic wealth.
07:18Our forest is an important resource.
07:21We have large deposits of gold reserves.
07:24Venezuela sees those fields as a partial solution to their economic woes.
07:28Their military posturing has reached a fever pitch,
07:31raising concerns about the potential for war.
07:34Despite international mediation efforts, the dispute remains unresolved.
07:38Presidential elections are set for next year.
07:42If they're free and fair, like the international community is demanding,
07:46analysts argue Maduro would likely lose power.
07:50Russia and Ukraine
08:01Once member states of the same country,
08:03Russia and Ukraine have shared a long relationship
08:06that has gradually worsened since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
08:11That year, Ukraine became an independent nation for the first time since 1922.
08:16But Russia struggled to fully accept its sovereignty.
08:19Crimea, in particular, caught their eye.
08:21It's a land of such strategic importance that wars have been fought there for centuries.
08:26A helicopter circled overhead as the soldiers tried to work out what to do.
08:32Not everyone here wants a separate state or closer links with Russia.
08:37Its large Russian-speaking population gave Russia a thin,
08:40casus belli to annex the peninsula in 2014.
08:43Since then, Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine's government.
08:48In 2022, Russia escalated the conflict with a full-fledged invasion.
08:52But the swift victory they hoped for never materialized,
08:55leaving the territory war-torn to this day.
09:04Israel and Palestine
09:09The Israel-Palestine conflict dates back to the 20th century,
09:13when Jewish and Arab nationalist movements clashed over Palestine
09:17after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
09:19In 1948, the establishment of Israel sparked the First Arab-Israeli War,
09:24which displaced many Palestinians.
09:26Since then, tensions have remained high, with more wars and uprisings
09:30often centered around borders in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
09:35Close to half a million Gazans ordered to leave their already destroyed homes
09:40by the Israeli army as they launch a fresh assault on Khan Yunis.
09:45Things took a significant turn in October 2023,
09:48when Hamas launched an attack on Israel,
09:50who then retaliated with an invasion of Gaza.
09:53This has led to widespread casualties and further complicated any prospects for peace.
09:59The situation is further complicated by Israel's territorial disputes with Lebanon,
10:03particularly over the Golan Heights, a region Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed.
10:09And it's impossible to know whether this kind of level of destruction was militarily necessary,
10:16or whether it's some scorched earth policy.
10:21In October 2024, Israel invaded southern Lebanon
10:25in response to cross-border attacks by Hezbollah.
10:28India and Pakistan
10:30Who's going to be in Pakistan and who's going to be in India?
10:32What are they meant to move their houses? What are they meant to uproot their farms?
10:35What's going to happen? There's confusion.
10:37The territorial dispute between India and Pakistan
10:40has been a hotbed of violence and conflict since the 1947 partition of British India.
10:46Both nations emerged when the British broke up their empire,
10:49India with a primarily Hindu population and Pakistan with a predominantly Muslim one.
10:54While religion plays a significant role,
10:57it's not the only factor in the ongoing struggle between both nations over the Kashmir region.
11:02British plans go up in smoke.
11:07And merely two months after transfer of power to the newly formed nations,
11:11Kashmir accedes to India.
11:14In 1972, a de facto border was established known as the Line of Control,
11:19but conflicts have continued to erupt along this line.
11:22With both countries being nuclear powers, the world has long watched Kashmir with concern.
11:27The religious and cultural divides between both nations,
11:30combined with internal sectarian violence, keep tensions at this border simmering.
11:35Relations between India and Pakistan continue to be tense,
11:38with experts saying they are unlikely to improve anytime soon.
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11:57China and Taiwan
12:05The conflict between China and Taiwan could ostensibly spark a third world war.
12:16China views Taiwan as a breakaway province, while Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state.
12:22Both perspectives have some merit.
12:24After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the defeated Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan.
12:31They declared this territory the Republic of China, separate from the People's Republic of China.
12:50China has consistently threatened war over Taiwan, leaving the region in a state of perpetual fear.
12:56Taiwan has, however, found an ally in the United States, which has supported it for decades,
13:01without officially recognizing its independence.
13:04International diplomacy over the region is extremely delicate,
13:08as even a brief visit by a US politician like Nancy Pelosi's in 2022 can ramp up tensions.
13:15His biggest foreign policy goal is to retake Taiwan by force if necessary.
13:21The world is full of conflicts.
13:23Did we miss any other deadly and active border disputes?
13:27Let us know in the comments below.
13:29Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
13:31and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.