The role of European Integration in Peaceful Settlement of Territorial and Border Conflicts

Territorial and border conflicts have always been one of the causes of conflict between the states. European Union region is no exception and has faced this problem during history. But, after World War II this region has witnessed huge evolutions, and integration has changed the region and consequently, the way of conflict settlement has been changed. The research was intended to find an answer to this question that “how integration can affect the peaceful settlement of territorial and border conflicts”. The research is fundamental in its goal and is descriptive-analytic in its nature and method. The research findings showed that European integration contributes to a peaceful settlement of territorial and border conflicts in four ways: first, imposing the norms and preconditions for membership called compulsory impact in a peaceful settlement of territorial-border conflicts; second, creating perceptional legitimacy of integration among the parties called enabling impact that the parties can settle the conflict peacefully, if they can legitimize the integration; third, connecting the dispute with the public and de-securitizing the dispute called connective impact and fourth, institutionalizing integration called constructive impact which was obvious in Cyprus case.