Mont Blanc

  • Contested territories
  • Administered by France, Italy
  • Claimed by Italy
  • Highest point 4,808.7 metre

The Mont Blanc is the highest mountain of the Mont Blanc Massif and one of the highest peaks in Europe. The summit lies at the border between France and Italy. French cartographers claim three of the principal peaks (of which the Mont Blanc is one) within its territory, but this is disputed by the Italians who place the border right on the top of the mountain. This claim is backed up by locals from both sides who suggest the summit should be shared. The first recorded ascent was made on 8th August 1786, marking it the start of modern mountaineering.

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South Ossetia

South Ossetia is a de facto state in South Caucasus, which declared independence from Georgia in 1991. Military conflicts with the Georgian army occurred in 1991-1992, 2004 and 2008. South Ossetia is recognized as a state by the UN member states Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria, and by the unrecognized states Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a very mountainous region at the juncture of Asia and Europe, which struggles economically as employment and supplies are scarce. The region relies heavily on military, political and financial aid from Russia.

Hans Island

Hans Island—a large rock of 1.3 km²—lies in the middle of the Nares Strait, which separates Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark) from Canada. The island lies within the 12-mile territorial limit off the coast of both Greenland and Canada, allowing both countries to claim it. The border in the channel was set in 1973, but the status of Hans Island was not resolved. This led to a symbolic claim in 1984 by Canadian troops, who planted a flag and left a bottle of Canadian whiskey. This was answered by the Danish minister of Greenland affairs who replaced the flag with a Danish one and left some Danish snaps. This tradition has been held high by both parties. In Greenlandic Hans Island is called Tartupaluk.

Liberland

This small strip of no man’s land in the Danube river has been part of a low intensity border dispute between Serbia and Croatia for many years. The fact that it was uninhabited and that there was no active claim inspired Vít Jedlička, a Czech right-libertarian politician, to declare The Free Republic of Liberland in 2015. There has been no diplomatic recognition of Liberland by any member of the United Nations. Serbia calls the claim ‘frivolous’ and Croatia dismisses it as ‘a joke’.