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Question: What country has had territorial disputes with the largest number of neighbors/other countries at the same time? To What result.

Many countries have undeclared borders one of the longest between India and China recently erupted in violence. Qatar and Saudi Arabia involved themselves in a mini war over their undeclared borders during the first gulf war in which 3 died.

Border Disputes on the Arabian Peninsula
A 1992 clash between Saudi Arabia and Qatar claimed three lives; Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of attacking a border post at Khafus, while the Saudis stated that the clash took place inside Saudi territory between Bedouins from the two countries.

In WWII a major reason for the outbreak of World War II was Germany's territorial disputes/ambitions against Czechoslovakia, Poland, France and to a lesser extent Austria.

My question is which country has simultaneously had the most territorial disputes with different neighbors and what was the result?

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  • You mean territorial disputes without actually being at war? Because once you count declarations of war as "territorial dispute" then you'd have to look at Germany and Japan in WWII, which at the end were at war with more or less "everybody" once everyone was certain about the outcome... even countries that were on a different continent altogether, e.g. the South Americas. – DevSolar Jul 10 '20 at 8:30
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    Contemporary Russia. First of all, it has the longest border (largest number of bordering countries). Second, if you follow this border, say counterclockwise, from Finland to Japan, you do not find a single country with which Russia does NOT have a border dispute. And this huge size and the longest border are the results of previous border disputes. Of all countries, Russia expanded at fastest rate, by far, during all its history. – Alex Jul 10 '20 at 13:37
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    @Alex, Actually contemporary Russia borders on 14 countries also. Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine and does not dispute it's borders with most of them. – user27618 Jul 10 '20 at 16:04
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    @IMS: "Does not dispute borders with most of them". Really?? Read the last speech of Putin. Have you heard of the ongoing war with Ukraine? Of Russian occupation of a parts of Ukraine, Moldowa and Georgia? Of the border disputes with China and Japan and Estonia? – Alex Jul 10 '20 at 16:38
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    @Alex the Russian army in Moldova and Georgia have roughly the same status as US army in Cuba, Syria and China (Taiwan). Other countries may strongly disagree, but as long as the territory is not annexed, it does not count as a territorial dispute. – jmster Jul 10 '20 at 17:38
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I think we are living through this history now. China currently has territorial disputes with 20 countries. All 14 of the countries it shares land borders with including: North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

Six additional countries removed from China's borders are also being challenged territorially. Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Brunei, and Japan. Bringing China's current territorial disputes up to 20 countries. That's got to be a record.

Two days ago a Chinese Diplomat claimed Chinese rights to the Russian Port of Vladivostok. Russia annexed it from China 1860.

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    China also has territorial disputes with Taiwan, a de facto independent island country, although that's a murky situation. – Semaphore♦ Jul 10 '20 at 6:45
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    "Has to be a record?" How about the various colonial/imperialist powers in the 19th century? That's assuming you count disputes with non-European countries and tribes. – o.m. Jul 10 '20 at 13:43
  • What about English expansion in Ireland, where there were tens or hundreds of little kingdoms? What about Harald the Fairhaired taking over all 20 or 30 states in Norway? – MAGolding Jul 10 '20 at 16:39