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@article{188608,
        author = {Navas M Khadar and Bijulal M.V},
        title = {Ethno-Territorial Conflict and the Mirror of Power: Rethinking Palestine in World Politics},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {7},
        pages = {3126-3132},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=188608},
        abstract = {The Israeli Palestinian conflict exemplifies the contemporary global shift toward ethno-territorial conflict, challenging conventional models of sovereignty, statehood, and international order. Drawing on recent scholarship that reconceptualizes territory, nationalism and occupation (Moore, 2016; Natarajan, 2024; Reingewertz, 2025), this article argues that the Palestinian question should be understood through a “mirror of power” framework: external actors, particularly extra-regional powers, do not merely project influence on the Middle East, but reflect and reproduce the region's contested territorial and identity dynamics while pursuing their own geopolitical and resource-security interests. The piece critically examines how the legal status of Palestinian lands, long subject to occupation and contestation, destabilizes traditional sovereignty, revealing instead a “post-Westphalian” order marked by contested legitimacy and competing ethno-territorial claims (Richmond, 2002; Knotter, 2024). Through historical and legal analysis—including the legacies of peace negotiations and agreements, and the evolving recognition of Palestinian statehood under international law—the article situates Palestine within broader global trends: the rise of ethno-territorial conflicts, the erosion of normative legal protections, and the reconfiguration of global power relations. In doing so, it challenges the assumption that state sovereignty remains the universal organizing principle of world politics, suggesting instead that contested sovereignty, identity-based territorial claims, and mirrored external interventions will increasingly shape global order.},
        keywords = {},
        month = {December},
        }