Dan Altman, "Taking Territory: The Persistence of Conquest Since 1945" (Cornell UP, 2026)
About this episode
Dan Altman discusses his book on the persistence of territorial conquest since 1945, exploring its motivations and implications.
Taking Territory: The Persistence of Conquest Since 1945 (Cornell University Press, 2026) is an eye-opening account of why territorial conquest persists today. The end of World War II seemingly brought about a decline in territorial conquest. Many have argued that a strong territorial integrity norm in the postwar era explains this decline. Yet as Dan Altman shows, states have seized territory numerous times since 1945. Large-scale conquests have waned, but small, targeted seizures have persisted. The relationship between conquest and war has also shifted. While states attempting conquest before 1945 often initiated war and sought to occupy large territories, challengers today more often seize small regions and try to avoid war. This strategy, the fait accompli, has become the predominant mode of conquest. Drawing on his original data, which include 175 conquest attempts between 1918 and 2024, Altman explains why conquest persists, what motivates it, when it turns violent, and when it succeeds. He shows how miscalculated fait accompli have sparked many post-1945 wars, and why the motives behind many territorial grabs are often about image, domestic politics, and the…
People in this episode
Host: Eleonora Mattiacci
Guest: Dan Altman
Topics covered
- territorial conquest
- post-1945 politics
- international relations
- war and conflict
- political science
Keywords
- conquest
- territorial integrity
- fait accompli
- war
- political ambitions
- domestic politics
- military strategy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Georgia State University, Cornell University Press
Books & works: Taking Territory: The Persistence of Conquest Since 1945
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