Security Studies, 23:754–786, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0963-6412 print / 1556-1852 online DOI: 10.1080/09636412.2014.964996 Which Land Is Our Land? Domestic Politics and Change in the Territorial Claims of Stateless Nationalist Movements HARRIS MYLONAS AND NADAV G. SHELEF Why do stateless nationalist movements change the area they see as appropriately constituting the nation-state they aspire to estab- lish? This article draws a number of hypotheses from the literature on nationalism and state formation and compares the predictions of each about the timing, direction, and process of change to the empirical record in two stateless national movements in the post- Ottoman space: Fatah and the Macedonian Revolutionary Organi- zation. Based on this investigation, the article argues that shifts in the areas stateless nationalist movements seek as their nation-states occur as a byproduct of the politically competitive domestic envi- ronment in which these movements are embedded. As nationalist movements engage in the competition for mundane power and sur- vival, their leaders may alter their rhetoric about the extent of the desired national state to meet immediate political challenges that are often only loosely related to territorial issues. If these, initially tactical, rhetorical modulations successfully resolve the short-term challenges that spurred their adoption, they can become institu- tionalized as comprising the new territorial scope of the desired national state. Harris Mylonas is assistant professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012). His research revolves around the processes of nation- and state-building, diaspora management policies, and the politicization of cultural differences. Nadav G. Shelef is associate professor of political science at University of Wisconsin. He is the author of Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Religion and Identity in Israel (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010). His research revolves around studies of nationalism, territorial conflict, and religion. Both authors contributed equally to this article. 754