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( Border)
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, states or subnational administrative divisions. They may foster the setting up of buffer zones. Some borders are fully or partially controlled, and may be crossed legally only at designated border checkpoints. There has been a renaissance in the study of borders during the past two decades, partially resulting from the creation of a counter narrative to notions of a borderless world which have been advanced as part of globalization theory[1]. This is reflected in a large number of international workshops and conferences, the BRIT (Border Regions in Transition) network of scholars [1], IBRU (the International Boundaries Research Unit) [2] at the University of Durham, UK, the Association of Borderland Scholars (ABS) in the USA[ http://www.absborderlands.org/], and the founding of smaller border research centres at Nijmegen (Holland) [3], Queens University (Belfast) [4], to name but a few. The Journal of Borderland Studies [5] deals exclusively with border related material, while other international journals such as, Geopolitics, [6] and Political Geography [7], publish material dealing with the changing significances and functions of borders in the contemporary world. Leading scholars in the contemporary study of borders include Anssi Paasi [8] (University of Oulu, Finland), Henk van Houtum [9] (Radboud University Nijmegen , Netherlands), Doris Wastl Water (University of Bern, Switzerland), David Newman [10] (Ben Gurion University, Israel), Emanuel Brunet Jailly [11] (University of Victoria, Canada), Irasema Coronado (University of Texas at El Paso). In the past many borders were not clearly defined lines, but were neutral zones called marchlands. This has been reflected in recent times with the neutral zones that were set up along part of Saudi Arabia's borders with Kuwait and Iraq (however, these zones no longer exist). In modern times the concept of a marchland has been replaced by that of the clearly defined and demarcated border.
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Border Subcategories
Border Articles
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