"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Ben Franklin

I do not have an example of something that is a state’s leader’s foremost concern, but I think that territorial integrity is not it.  I have always set store by Ben Franklin’s famous quote (see title of this post).  Therefore, I find myself disagreeing with concerning oneself too much with safety and security.  Safety and security are all well and good, but when the government takes away rights to secure the nation, I get angry.  I would rather fear for my security from external foes than from my own government.  Seeing how we are going with the assumption that security is against external factors, I am more inclined to agree with said statement.   

However, I do have some qualms about the semantics of this question, mostly because I disagree with that definition of security.  I have an issue with “territorial integrity,” because I feel that it encapsulates more and less than I would like in order to agree.  First of all, illegal immigration would count as infringing on territorial integrity.  I do not believe that illegal immigration into America from Mexico is as big of an issue as people make it out to be.  I also think that the way we handle illegal immigrants and our policies to prevent illegal immigration are not admirable or effective.  Sure, the economy can be negatively affected by them, but if undocumented workers were suddenly all deported and farmers had to hire Americans at minimum wage, the way that our agricultural system is set up, the food prices would skyrocket and the people who would really get hurt would be middle to low income Americans.  In this case, no, the territorial integrity of America should not be the main priority. 

I also think that the desire for “territorial integrity” for a nation really depends on the nation.  I’d say that for countries that border Russia, security is definitely the number one objective.  I’d also say the same for emerging nations.  The American Revolution had to occur to secure the nation from the British before the Founding Fathers could write the Constitution and acknowledge our inalienable rights.  However, when Obama or McCain (and by that I really mean Obama) takes office, he is not going to get to the oval office and begin his presidency by securing our nation against territorial invasions.  I do not see that as being the number one concern for every nation’s leader around the world.