Borders define geographic Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.). Four historical traditions in geographical research are the spatial analysis of natural and boundaries of political entities Political geography is the field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally political geography adopts a three scale structure for the purposes of analysis with the study of or legal jurisdictions A jurisdiction is an area with a set of laws under the control of a system of courts which are different to neighbouring areas. Unitary states usually form single jurisdictions, whilst each state in a federal state forms a separate jurisdiction. However sometimes certain laws in a federal state are uniform across the constituent states and, such as governments A government is the organization, or agency through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administers public policy, and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects, sovereign states A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to, federated states A federated state is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federal union. Such states differ from sovereign states, in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government. A federated state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and is a form of regional and other subnational entities Administrative divisions are divisions of a political division. In other words, they are designated portions of a country. They are also called subnational entities. They are each granted a certain degree of autonomy, and are required to manage themselves through their own local governments. Countries are divided up into these smaller units to. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area The Schengen Area comprises the territories of twenty-five European countries that have implemented the eponymous agreement signed in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, in 1985. The Schengen Area operates very much like a single state for international travel purposes with border controls for travellers travelling in and out of the area, but with—are open and completely unguarded. Other borders are partially or fully controlled, and may be crossed legally only at designated border checkpoints A border checkpoint is a place on the land border between two states where travellers and/or goods are inspected. Authorization is often required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders often have a limited number of checkpoints where they can be crossed without legal sanctions. International and supranational. Some, mostly contentious, borders may even foster the setting up of buffer zones In geography, a buffer zone is any zonal area that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas distant from one another, for whatever reason. Common types of buffer zones are demilitarized zones and certain restrictive easement zones and green belts. Such zones may be, but not necessarily be, comprised by a sovereign state, forming a.

Definitions of borders

In the past many borders were not clearly defined lines, but were neutral zones called marchlands A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe. This has been reflected in recent times with the neutral zones that were set up along part of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكه العربيه السعوديه‎) is the largest Arab country of the Middle East. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Persian Gulf lies to the northeast and the Red Sea's borders with Kuwait The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate situated in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and lies on the northwestern shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic "akwat", the plural of "kout", meaning fortress and Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyat Al-Irāq, Kurdish: كؤماری عه‌راق‎, Komara Îraqê, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܥܸܪܵܩ) is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the (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. For the purposes of border control The control of the flow of many people, animals and goods across a border may be controlled by government Customs services. Security is enforced by various kinds of Border Guards and Coast Guards. Official designations, jurisdictions and subordinations of these agencies vary, airports An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps takeoff and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport. An airport consists of at least one surface such as a runway for a plane to takeoff and land, a helipad, or water for takeoffs and landings, and often includes buildings such as control and seaports A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger, more economical are also classed as borders. Most countries have some form of border control to restrict or limit the movement of people, animals, plants, and goods into or out of the country. Under international law, each country is generally permitted to define the conditions that have to be met by a person to legally cross its borders by its own laws, and to prevent persons from crossing its border when this happens in violation of those laws.

In order to cross borders, the presentation of passports A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth. Most often, nationality and citizenship are congruent and visas A visa does not generally give a non-citizen any rights, including a right to enter a country or to remain there. The possession of a visa is not in itself a guarantee of entry into the country that issued it, and a visa can be revoked at any time. The visa process merely enables the host country to verify the identity of the visa applicant before or other appropriate forms of identity document An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card (IC). In some countries the possession of a government-produced identity card is compulsory while in others it may be voluntary. In countries is required by some legal orders. To stay or work within a country's borders aliens In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country (foreign persons) may need special immigration Immigration is the introduction of new people into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration documents or permits Work permit is a generic term for a legal authorization which allows a person to take employment. It is most often used in reference to instances where a person is given permission to work in a country where one does not hold citizenship, but is also used in reference to minors, who in some jurisdictions require a permit in order to work that authorise them to do so. Having such documents (i.e. visa and passport) however does not automatically guarantee that the alien will be allowed to cross to the other side of the border.

Moving goods across a border often requires the payment of excise tax An excise or excise tax may be defined broadly as an inland tax on the production for sale; or sale, of a specific good, or narrowly as a tax on a good produced for sale, or sold, within the country. Excises are distinguished from customs duties, which are taxes on importation. Excises, whether broadly defined or narrowly defined, are inland taxes,, often collected by customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country. Depending on local legislation and regulations, the import or export of some goods may be restricted or forbidden, and the officials. Animals (and occasionally humans) moving across borders may need to go into quarantine Quarantine is voluntary or compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty day period to prevent the spread of exotic or infectious diseases. Most countries prohibit carrying illegal drugs or endangered animals across their borders. Moving goods, animals or people illegally across a border, without declaring them, seeking permission, or deliberately evading official inspection constitutes smuggling Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.

Natural borders

Natural borders are geographical features that present natural obstacles to communication and transport. Existing political borders are often a formalization In formal logic, a formal system consists of a formal language and a set of inference rules, used to derive (to conclude) an expression from one or more other premises that are antecedently supposed (axioms) or derived (theorems). The axioms and rules may be called a deductive apparatus. A formal system may be formulated and studied for its of these historical, natural obstacles.

Some geographical features that often constitute natural borders are:

• Oceans An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (~3.61 X 1014 m2) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas: oceans create very costly natural borders. Very few nation states span more than one continent A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents – they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Only very large and resource-rich states are able to sustain the costs of governance across oceans for longer periods of time.
• Rivers A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill; there is no: some political borders have been formalized along natural borders formed by rivers. Some examples are; the Rio Grande The Rio Grande is a river that forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is the fourth or fifth longest river system in the border (Mexico-USA), the Rhine The Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at about 1,232 km (766 mi), with an average discharge of more than 2,000 m3/s (71,000 cu ft/s) border (France-Germany), and the Mekong The Mekong is one of the world’s major rivers. It is the world's 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km , and it drains an area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually border (Thailand-Laos)
• Lakes A lake is a terrain feature , a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is not global). Another definition is a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size that is surrounded by land. On Earth a body of water is considered a lake when it is inland,: larger lakes create natural borders. One example is the natural border created by Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake . It is estimated to be the second or third largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia. The lake is divided between four countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia, with the DRC (45%) and Tanzania (41%) (Congo-Burundi-Tanzania-Zambia)
• Forests A forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth's surface (or 30% of total land area), though they once covered much more (about 50% of total land area), in many different regions and function as habitats for: denser djungles or forests can create strong natural borders. One example of a natural forest border is the Amazon rain forest The Amazon rainforest , also known as Amazonia, or the Amazon jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region (Colombia-Venezuela-Guyana-Brazil-Bolivia-Peru)
• Mountain ranges A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or fold mountains and may,: research on borders suggests that mountains have especially strong effects as natural borders. Many nations in Europe and Asia have had their political borders defined along mountain ranges.

Throughout history, technological advances have reduced the costs of transport and communication across these natural borders. This has reduced the significance of natural borders over time. As a result, political borders that have been formalized more recently — such as those in Africa or Americas — typically conform less to natural borders than very old borders — such as those in Europe or Asia — do. States whose borders conform to natural borders are, for similar reasons, more likely to be strong nation-states.

Border economics

The presence of borders often fosters certain economic features or anomalies. Wherever two jurisdictions come into contact, special economic opportunities arise for border trade Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the international borders between countries. In this sense, it is a part of normal legal trade that flows through standard export/import frameworks of nations. However border trade specifically refers to the increase in trade in areas where crossing borders is relatively. Smuggling Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations provides a classic case; contrariwise, a border region may flourish on the provision of excise An excise or excise tax may be defined broadly as an inland tax on the production for sale; or sale, of a specific good, or narrowly as a tax on a good produced for sale, or sold, within the country. Excises are distinguished from customs duties, which are taxes on importation. Excises, whether broadly defined or narrowly defined, are inland taxes, or of import The term "import" is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus an import is any–export The term "export" is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer". In International Trade, & services — legal or quasi-legal, corrupt or corruption-free. Different regulations on either side of a border may encourage services A service is the intangible equivalent of a good. Service provision is often an economic activity where the buyer does not generally, except by exclusive contract, obtain exclusive ownership of the thing purchased. The benefits of such a service, if priced, are held to be self-evident in the buyers willingness to pay for it. Public services are to position themselves at or near that border: thus the provision of pornography, of prostitution, of alcohol In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl functional group (-O and/or of narcotics The term narcotic strictly refers (medically) to any psychoactive compound with morphine-like effects (see Opiate). A Narcotic is defined as a drug as opium or morphine that in moderate doses relieves pain and induces deep sleep. Excessive use can cause tremors and seizures. However, the term is also used colloquially to refer to any psychoactive may cluster around borders, city limits, county lines, ports A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger, more economical and airports An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps takeoff and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport. An airport consists of at least one surface such as a runway for a plane to takeoff and land, a helipad, or water for takeoffs and landings, and often includes buildings such as control. In a more planned and official context, Special Economic Zones A Special Economic Zone is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country's typical economic laws. The category 'SEZ' covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including Free Trade Zones (FTZ), Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Free Zones (FZ), Industrial Estates (IE), Free Ports, Urban Enterprise Zones and (SEZs) often tend to cluster near borders or ports.

Human economic traffic across borders (apart from kidnapping), may involve mass commuting between workplaces and residential settlements. The removal of internal barriers to commerce, as in France after the French Revolution or in Europe since the 1940s, de-emphasises border-based economic activity and fosters free trade. Euroregions are similar official structures built around commuting across borders.

Border politics

Political borders have a variety of meanings for those whom they affect. Many borders in the world have checkpoints where border control agents inspect those crossing the boundary.

In much of Europe, such controls were abolished by the Schengen Agreement and subsequent European Union legislation. Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, the competence to pass laws on crossing internal and external boders within the European Union and the associated Schengen States (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein) lies exclusively within the jurisdiction of the European Union, except where states have used a specific right to opt-out (United Kingdom and Ireland, which maintain a common travel area amongst themselves). For details, see Schengen Area.

The United States has notably increased measures taken in border control on the Canada–United States border and the United States–Mexico border during its War on Terrorism (See Shantz 2010). One American writer has said that the 3600-km (2000-mile) US-Mexico border is probably "the world's longest boundary between a First World and Third World country."^[1]

Historic borders such as the Great Wall of China, the Maginot Line, and Hadrian's Wall have played a great many roles and been marked in different ways. While the stone walls, the Great Wall of China and the Roman Hadrian's Wall in Britain had military functions, the entirety of the Roman borders were very porous, a policy which encouraged Roman economic activity with its neighbors^[2]. On the other hand, a border like the Maginot Line was entirely military and was meant to prevent any access in what was to be World War II to France by its neighbor, Germany. Germany ended up going around the Maginot Line through Belgium just as it had done in World War I.

Cross-border regions

Macro-regional integration initiatives, such as the European Union and NAFTA, have spurred the establishment of cross-border regions. These are initiatives driven by local or regional authorities, aimed at dealing with local border-transcending problems such as transport and environmental degradation.^[3] Many cross-border regions are also active in encouraging intercultural communication and dialogue as well as cross-border economic development strategies. In Europe, the European Union provides financial support to cross-border regions via its Interreg programme. The Council of Europe has issued the Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation, providing a legal framework for cross-border co-operation even though it is in practice rarely used by Euroregions.

Border studies

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^[4]. Examples of recent initiatives are the Border Regions in Transition network of scholars^[5], the International Boundaries Research Unit at the University of Durham^[6], the Association of Borderland Scholars in the USA^[7], and the founding of smaller border research centres at Nijmegen^[8] and Queen's University Belfast^[9].

Contemporary leading scholars in the field of border studies include Emmanuel Brunet Jailly at the University of Victoria, which is the site of the Executive Secretary and Treasurer of the international Association for Borderlands Studies, (Emmanuel Brunet Jailly, and Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde at Radboud University are the editors of the international scholarly Journal of Borderlands Studies), David Newman at Ben Gurion University (co-editor of the international journal Geopolitics). Other leading scholars include Liam O'Dowd at Queen's University Belfast, Anssi Paasi at the University of Oulu, Anthony Payan at the University of Texas El Paso (Payan is the President of the Association for Borderland Studies), James Scott at Karelian Institute, Joensuun University, Akihiro Washita at Hokkaido University, and Doris Wastl-Walter at the University of Bern.

Image gallery

The following pictures show in how many different ways international and regional borders can be closed off, monitored, at least marked as such, or simply unremarkable.

See also

• Border control
• Geopolitics
• List of countries and territories by land and maritime borders
• List of countries that border only one other country
• List of international border rivers
• List of land borders by date of establishment
• List of land border lengths
• List of border rivers
• List of national border changes since World War I
• List of sets of four countries that border one another
• Political geography
• Political science

References

1. ^ Murphy, Cullen. Roman Empire: gold standard of immigration. Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2007 (accessed here June 20, 2007)
2. ^ Murphy 2007
3. ^ Perkmann, M, Building governance institutions across European borders, Regional Studies, 1999, Vol: 33, Pages: 657 - 667 [1]
4. ^ D. Newman & A. Paasi, `Fences and neighbours in the post-modern world: boundary narratives in political geography', Progress in Human Geography, 22 (2), 186-207, 1998; D. Newman, `The lines that continue to separate us: Borders in our borderless world’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol 30 (2), 1-19, 2006.
5. ^ Border Regions in Transition IX Conference, North American and European Border Regions in Comparative Perspective: Markets, States and Border Communities, (January 12-15,2008) Victoria, BC Canada and Bellingham, WA United States.
6. ^ International Boundaries Research Unit, University of Durham.
7. ^ Association for Borderland Studies.
8. ^ Nijmegen Centre for Border Research.
9. ^ Centre for International Borders Research (CIBR) Queen's University Belfast

External links

• Border Stories - A website devoted to stories from both sides of the U.S. Mexico Border
• Collection of pictures of European borders, mainly intra-Schengen borders
• Institut Européen des Itinéraires Culturels homepage
• Border Ireland - database of activities and publications on cross-border co-operation on the island of Ireland since 1980's
• Talking Borders Queen's University Belfast online audio archive
• Shantz, Jeff. 2010. Racial Profiling and Borders: International, Interdisciplinary Perspectives Lake Mary: Vandeplas

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• International Economics
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