Methodological challenges in the study of stateless nationalist territorial claims Harris Mylonas a and Nadav Shelef b ABSTRACT Methodological challenges in the study of stateless nationalist territorial claims. Territory, Politics, Governance. The territory claimed by stateless nationalist movements can change over time. Following a review of prominent explanations, this article addresses some of the more general methodological challenges involved in studying change in the territorial claims of stateless nationalist movements. It draws attention to the analytical distinction between the origin of territorial claims and their consequent changes. Building on this distinction, it also demonstrates the advantages of using a multidimensional understanding of change in territorial claims focusing on its timing, direction, and process. Then it turns to a discussion highlighting the tradeoffs in the choice of the unit of analysis as well as common problems in case selection, i.e., unjustifiable asynchronous comparisons and anachronism. The article concludes by laying out a roadmap for future research in this area. KEYWORDS Nationalism; nationalist movements; territorial claims; conflict; methodology 摘要 研究无国家国族主义者的领土宣称的方法论挑战。Territory, Politics, Governance. 无国家国族主义运动所 宣称的领土随着时间而改变。在回顾重要的解释之后，本文将应对研究无国家国族主义运动的领土宣称 变迁中涉及的若干更为一般性的方法论挑战。本文关注领土宣称及其所导致的变迁之间的分析性区别。 本文根据此一区别，同时証实多面向理解领土宣称的变迁，并聚焦其时间、方向与过程的优势。本文接 着转向强调选择分析单位中的权衡以及案例选择中的共同问题之讨论，例如无法合理化的非同期比较与 时代错误。本文于结论中，为本领域的未来研究开展了蓝图。 关键词 国族主义; 国族主义运动; 领土宣称; 冲突; 方法论 RÉSUMÉ Problemes methodologiques dans l’etude de revendications territoriales nationalistes sans Etat. Territory, Politics, Governance. Le territoire revendiqué par des mouvements nationalistes sans État peut évoluer au fil du temps. À la suite d’un examen d’éminentes explications, le présent article se penche sur certains des problèmes méthodologiques les plus généraux que comporte l’étude de l’évolution des revendications territoriales de mouvements nationalistes. Il attire l’attention du lecteur sur la distinction analytique entre l’origine des revendications territoriales et les changements qui en découlent. En s’appuyant sur cette distinction, il © 2017 Regional Studies Association CONTACT a mylonas@gwu.edu Department of Political Science, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA b shelef@wisc.edu Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA TERRITORY, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE, 2017 VOL. 5, NO. 2, 145–157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2017.1284020