Some borders—such as most states' internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within theSchengen Area—areopen and completely unguarded.[2] Most external political borders are partially or fully controlled, and may be crossed legally only at designatedborder checkpoints; adjacentborder zones may also be controlled. For the purposes ofborder control,airports andseaports are also classed as borders. Most countries have some form of border control to regulate or limit the movement of people, animals, and goods into and out of the country. Under international law, each country is generally permitted to legislate the conditions that have to be met in order to cross its borders, and to prevent people from crossing its borders in violation of those laws.
Buffer zones may be set up on borders between belligerent entities to lower the risk of escalation. Whileborder refers to the boundary itself, the area around the border is called thefrontier.
In thepre-modern world, the termborder was vague and could refer to either side of the boundary, thus it was necessary to specify part of it withborderline orborderland. During themedieval period the government's control frequently diminished the further people got from thecapital. Therefore borderland (especially impassable terrain) attracted manyoutlaws, as they often found sympathizers.[3]
In the past, many borders were not clearly defined lines; instead there were often intervening areas often claimed and fought over by both sides, sometimes calledmarchlands. Special cases in modern times were theSaudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone from 1922 to 1991 and theSaudi Arabian–Kuwaiti neutral zone from 1922 until 1970. In modern times, marchlands have been replaced by clearly defined and demarcated borders.
Political borders are imposed on the world through human agency.[4] That means that although a political border may follow a river or mountain range, such a feature does not automatically define the political border, even though it may be a major physical barrier to crossing.
Political borders are often classified by whether or not they follow conspicuous physical features on the earth. William Miles said that Britain and France traced close to 40% of the entire length of the world's international boundaries.[5]
Natural borders are geographical features that present natural obstacles to communication and transport. Existing political borders are often a formalization of such historical, natural obstacles.
Some geographical features that often constitute natural borders are:
Oceans: oceans create very costly natural borders.Very few countries span more than onecontinent. Only very large and resource-rich states are able to sustain the costs of governance across oceans for longer periods of time.
Rivers: Some political borders have been formalized along natural borders formed by rivers. If a precise line is desired, it is often drawn along thethalweg, the deepest line along the river.
Throughout history, technological advances have reduced the costs of transport and communication across the natural borders. That 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[citation needed] than very old borders, such as those in Europe or Asia, do.
A landscape border is a mixture of political and natural borders. One example is the defensive forest created by China'sSong dynasty in the eleventh century.[6] Such a border is political in the sense that it is human-demarcated, usually through atreaty. However, a landscape border is not demarcated by fences and walls but instead landscape features such as forests, mountains, and water bodies. It is different from a natural border, however, in the sense that the border landscape is not natural but human-engineered. Such a landscape usually differs from the borderland's natural geography and its building requires tremendous human labour and financial investment.
Geometric boundaries[citation needed] are formed by straight lines (such as lines of latitude or longitude), or occasionally arcs (Pennsylvania/Delaware), regardless of the physical and cultural features of the area. Such political boundaries are often found around the states that developed out of colonial holdings, such as inNorth America,[7]Africa[citation needed] and theMiddle East. TheCanada–United States border follows the 49th parallel for roughly 2,175 miles (3,500 km) fromLake of the Woods (Ontario andMinnesota) west to thePacific Ocean.
A generalization of the idea of geometric borders is the idea offiat boundaries by which is meant any sort of boundary that does not track an underlyingbona fide physical discontinuity (fiat,Latin for "let it be done", a decision). Fiat boundaries are typically the product of human demarcation, such as in demarcating electoral districts or postal districts.[8]
The purpose of theGreat Wall of China was to stop people and militaries from crossing the northern border of China. Today it is a relic border.
A relic border is a former boundary, which may no longer be a legal boundary at all. However, the former presence of the boundary can still be seen in the landscape. For instance, theboundary betweenEast andWest Germany is no longer an international boundary, but it can still be seen because of historical markers on the landscape; it remains a cultural and economic demarcation inGermany. Other examples include theDemilitarized Zone betweenNorth andSouth Vietnam (defunct since 1975) and the border betweenNorth andSouth Yemen (defunct since 1990). Occasionally a relic border is reconstituted in some form, for example the border betweenBritish Somaliland andItalian Somaliland ceased to exist when the two colonies merged to form the independent state ofSomalia in 1960, however when the former British Somaliland declared independence in 1991 it claimed the former British-Italian line as its eastern border.[9]
Aline of control (LoC) refers to a militarized buffer border between two or more nations that has yet to achieve permanent border status. LoC borders are typically under military control and are not recognized as an official international border. Formally known as a cease-fire line, an LoC was first created with theSimla Agreement betweenIndia andPakistan.[10] Similar to a cease-fire line, an LoC is typically the result of war, military stalemates and unresolved land ownership conflict.[11]
A maritime border is a division enclosing an area in the ocean where a nation has exclusive rights over the mineral and biological resources,[12] encompassing maritime features, limits and zones.[13] Maritime borders represent the jurisdictional borders of amaritime nation[14] and are recognized by theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Some maritime borders have remained indeterminate despite efforts to clarify them. This is explained by an array of factors, some of which illustrate regional problems.[15]
Airspace is theatmosphere located within a country's controlled international and maritime borders. Allsovereign countries hold the right to regulate and protect air space under the international law ofAir sovereignty.[16] The horizontal boundaries of airspace are similar to the policies of "high seas" in maritime law. Airspace extends 12 nautical miles from the coast of a country and it holds responsibility for protecting its own airspace unless underNATO peacetime protection.[16][17] With international agreement a country can assume the responsibility of protecting or controlling the atmosphere over International Airspaces such as thePacific Ocean. The vertical boundaries of airspace are not officially set or regulated internationally. However, there is a general agreement of vertical airspace ending at the point of theKármán line.[18] The Kármán line is a peak point at the altitude of 62 mi (100 km) above the Earth's surface, setting a boundary between the atmosphere (airspace) andouter space (which is governed byspace law).[19]
The frontier is a border that is open-ended to one side, identifying an expanding borderland to one side.
This type of border can be fairly abstract and has been identified as a particular state of mind[20] for human activity. As such frontiers have been applied to borderlands identifying and claiming them asterra nullius, such asMarie Byrd Land inWest Antarctica, the only territory in Antarctica unclaimed by any sovereign nation.[21]
In places where smuggling, migration, and infiltration are a problem, many countries fortify borders with fences andbarriers, and institute formalborder control procedures. These can extend inland, as in the United States where theU.S. Customs and Border Protection service has jurisdiction to operate up to 100 miles from any land or sea boundary.[22] On the other hand, some borders are merely signposted. This is common in countries within the EuropeanSchengen Area and on rural sections of theCanada–United States border. Borders may even be completely unmarked, typically in remote or forested regions; such borders are often described as "porous". Migration within territorial borders, and outside of them, represented an old and established pattern of movement in African countries, in seeking work and food, and to maintain ties with kin who had moved across the previously porous borders of their homelands. When the colonial frontiers were drawn, Western countries attempted to obtain a monopoly on the recruitment of labor in many African countries, which altered the practical and institutional context in which the old migration patterns had been followed, and some might argue, are still followed today. The frontiers were particularly porous for the physical movement of migrants, and people living in borderlands easily maintained transnational cultural and social networks.
Regulated borders have varying degrees of control on the movement of persons and trade between nations andjurisdictions. Mostindustrialized nations have regulations on entry and require one or more of the following procedures:visa check,passport check orcustoms checks.[23] Most regulated borders have regulations on immigration, types of wildlife and plants, and illegal objects such as drugs or weapons. Overall border regulations are placed by national and local governments and can vary depending on nation and current political or economic conditions. Some of the most regulated borders in the world include:Australia, theUnited States,Israel,Canada, theUnited Kingdom, and theUnited Arab Emirates.[24] These nations have government-controlled border agencies and organizations that enforce border regulation policies on and within their borders.
Indian and Pakistan border officers at the India-Pakistan border
Anopen border is the deregulation and or lack of regulation on the movement of persons between nations and jurisdictions. This definition does not apply to trade or movement between privately owned land areas.[25] Most nations have open borders for travel within their nation of travel, though more authoritarian states may limit the freedom of internal movement of its citizens, asfor example in the former USSR. However, only a handful of nations have deregulated open borders with other nations, an example of this being European countries under theSchengen Agreement or the openBelarus-Russia border.[26] Open borders used to be very common amongst all nations, however this became less common after theFirst World War, which led to the regulation of open borders, making them less common and no longer feasible for mostindustrialized nations.[27] An example of Open orders include theSchengen Area where 29 European nations mutually abolished their border control.[28]
Ademilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border separating two or more nations, groups or militaries that have agreed to prohibit the use of military activity or force within the border's bounds. A DMZ can act as a war boundary, ceasefire line,wildlife preserve, or ade facto international border. An example of a demilitarized international border is the38th parallel between North and South Korea.[29] Other notable DMZ zones includeAntarctica andouter space (consisting of all space 100 miles away from the earth's surface), both are preserved for world research and exploration.[30][31] The prohibition of control by nations can make a DMZ unexposed to human influence and thus developed into a natural border or wildlife preserve, such as on theKorean Demilitarized Zone, theVietnamese Demilitarized Zone, and theGreen Line in Cyprus.[32][33]
The United States–Mexico border:San Diego–Tijuana.A border wall on a beach separating the United States and Mexico
Borders undermine economic activity and development by reducing trade activity.[34][35][36]
The presence of borders often fosters certain economic features or anomalies. Wherever two jurisdictions come into contact, special economic opportunities arise forborder trade.Smuggling provides a classic case; contrariwise, a border region may flourish on the provision ofexcise or ofimport–export services — legal or quasi-legal,corrupt or legitimate. Different regulations on either side of a border may encourageservices to position themselves at or near that border: thus the provision ofpornography, ofprostitution, ofalcohol,fireworks, and/or ofnarcotics may cluster around borders, city limits, county lines,ports andairports. In a more planned and official context,Special Economic Zones (SEZs) often tend to cluster near borders or ports.
Even if the goods are not perceived to be undesirable, states will still seek to document and regulate the cross-border trade in order to collecttariffs and benefit from foreign currency exchange revenues.[37] Thus, there is the concept unofficial trade in goods otherwise legal; for example, the cross-border trade in livestock bypastoralists in theHorn of Africa.Ethiopia sells an estimated $250 to $300 million of livestock toSomalia,Kenya andDjibouti every year unofficially, over 100 times the official estimate.[37]
Human economic traffic across borders (apart fromkidnapping) may involve masscommuting between workplaces and residential settlements. The removal of internal barriers tocommerce, as in France after theFrench Revolution or inEurope since the 1940s, de-emphasizes border-based economic activity and fostersfree trade.Euroregions are similar official structures built around commuting across boundary.
Borders between Israel,Syria andLebanon inMount Hermon region. The Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon—marked by black asterisk. Disengagement Israeli front line with Syria (1974)—marked by blue asterisk. Disengagement Syrian front line with Israel (1974)—marked by red asterisk.
Political borders have a variety of meanings for those whom they affect. Many borders in the world havecheckpoints whereborder control agents inspect persons and/or goods crossing the boundary.
Some borders require presentation of legal paperwork likepassports andvisas, or otheridentity documents, for persons to cross borders. To stay or work within a country's bordersaliens (foreign persons) may need specialimmigration documents orpermits; but possession of such documents does not guarantee that the person should be allowed to cross the border.
Moving goods across a border often requires the payment ofexcise tax, often collected bycustoms officials. Animals (and occasionally humans) moving across borders may need to go intoquarantine to prevent the spread of exotic 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 or seeking permission, or deliberately evading official inspection, constitutessmuggling. Controls on car liability insurance validity and other formalities may also take place.
US customs and border officers boarding a ship at the border.
A border may have been:
Agreed by the countries on both sides
Imposed by the country on one side
Imposed by third parties, e.g. an international conference
Inherited from a former state, colonial power or aristocratic territory
Inherited from a former internal border, such as within the formerSoviet Union
Never formally defined.
In addition, a border may be ade facto military ceasefire line.In much of Europe, controls on persons were abolished by the 1985Schengen Agreement and subsequentEuropean Union legislation. Since theTreaty of Amsterdam, the competence to pass laws on crossing internal and external borders within the European Union and the associatedSchengen Area states (Iceland,Norway,Switzerland, andLiechtenstein) lies exclusively within the jurisdiction of the European Union, except where states have used a specific right to opt out (United Kingdom andIreland, which maintain theCommon Travel Area amongst themselves).
Historic borders such as theGreat Wall of China, theMaginot Line, andHadrian's Wall have played a great many roles and been marked in different ways. While thestone walls, the Great Wall ofChina and the Roman Hadrian's Wall in Britain had military functions, the entirety of the Roman borders were very porous, which encouraged Roman economic activity with neighbors.[38] 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 inWorld War I.
Border conflicts are disputes between territories that occur at the borders separating said territories. They occur when one party constructs identities or interests related to the border which are incompatible with the other party's identities and interests.[39] Border conflicts or the potential of such are the reason why many borders featurefortifications and zoning likeno man's lands,demilitarized zones,demarcation lines andbuffer zones. Examples of border conflicts include skirmishes and wars, such as the38th Parallel (between North and South Korea),Western Sahara conflict, andKashmir region conflicts between India and Pakistan.
A border conflict can occur due to several reasons. Most commonly,territorial disputes can result in border conflicts, as it is the case with the Kashmir conflict.[40]
While many borders are based on specific natural landscape features, some borders have additional man-made infrastructure. Fencing is used for security reasons, mainly to prevent unauthorised activity between the borders, including the travelling and transport of humans and goods.[41][42] In a state of increased tension, borders may also be heavily fortified, with defensive infrastructure being built.[43] Crossings may be built into a border to allow for regulated crossing into such territory.[44]
Even the most fortified borders reserve specific places to allow crossing. The many forms of borders have different ways of enabling and controlling passage.
Borders can have a significant impact on and function for movement. It can enable and stop movement, across as well as along borders.
Thepermeability of borders depends on its construction, availability of crossings, regulation and types or scope of activity. The permeability can vary, borders can be barriers for humans, but also foranimal migration or types ofpollution.
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.[45] Many cross-border regions are also active in encouragingintercultural communication and dialogue as well as cross-border economic development strategies. InEurope, theEuropean Union provides financial support to cross-border regions via itsInterreg programme. The Council ofEurope has issued theOutline 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 art as aconceptual artistic practice, however, opens up the possibility for artists to explore similar concerns of identity and national origin(s) but whose location is not specific to the U.S-Mexico border. A border can be a division, dividing groups of people and families. Borders can include but are not limited to language, culture, social and economic class, religion, and national identity. In addition to a division, a border can also conceive a borderland area that can create a cohesive community separate from the mainstream cultures and identities portrayed in the communities away from the borders, such as the Tijuana-San Diego border between Mexico and the United States.
Border art can be defined as an art that is created in reference to any number of physical or imagined boundaries. This art can but is not limited tosocial,political, physical,emotional and/ornationalist issues. Border art is not confined to one particularmedium. Border art/artists often address the forced politicization of human bodies and physical land and the arbitrary, yet incredibly harmful, separations that are created by these borders and boundaries. These artists are often "border crossers" themselves. They may cross borders of traditional art-making (through performance, video, or a combination of mediums). They may at once be artists andactivists, existing in multiple socialroles at once. Many border artists defy easy classifications in their artistic practice and work.
^Miles, William F. S. (2014).Scars of Partition: Postcolonial Legacies in French and British Borderlands. U of Nebraska Press. p. 3.ISBN978-0-8032-6771-8.Anglo-French carving of colonial space is a significant geographical legacy: nearly 40 percent of the entire length of today's international boundaries were traced by Britain and France.
^Smith, Barry (1995)."On Drawing Lines on a Map". In Frank, A. U.; Kuhn, W.; Mark, D. M. (eds.).Spatial Information Theory. Proceedings of COSIT 1995. Berlin/Heidelberg/Vienna/New York/London/Tokyo:Springer Verlag. pp. 475–484.Archived from the original on 2019-02-09. Retrieved2017-01-03.
The World in 2015: National borders undermined? 11-min video interview with Bernard Guetta, a columnist for Libération newspaper and France Inter radio. "For [Guetta], one of the main lessons from international relations in 2014 is that national borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant. These borders, drawn by the colonial powers, were and still are entirely artificial. Now, people want borders along national, religious or ethnic lines. Bernard Guetta calls this a "comeback of real history"."
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