BOUNDARIES and their EFFECTS

Frontier or boundary?Frontier: a zone where no state exercises complete political control. A tangible geographic areas, whereas a boundary is an infinitely thin, invisible imaginary line

Natural/Physical boundaries

• Water features– Rivers

• Changing course• Thalweg, midpoint, or

bank

– Lakes• Shoreline or midpoint

• Mountains– Peak-to-peak– Ridgeline

• Deserts

Morphological Classifications of Boundaries

Cultural Boundaries• Religious boundaries: religious differences often

coincide w/ boundaries between states, but only in a few cases has religion been used to select actual boundary lines

• Example: British partitioning of Pakistan and India

Cultural Boundaries Con’t

• Language boundaries: This is an important cultural characteristic for making boundaries, especially in Europe

• Example: European languages have big literary traditions and formal rules of grammar and spelling. French language = big reason for development of France as a unified state in 17th Century. England, Spain, Portugal developed around distinctive languages

Geometric/Mathematical Boundaries

• Straight lines drawn on a map

• Examples: Part of the northern United States’ boundary with Canada – est. 1846 by a treaty. Boundary between Chad and Libya = straight line across desert

Boundary Making

• DEFINITION– Also called “description”– Treaty-makers usually involved– References are made to cultural and physical

features – who gets what?

• DELIMITATION– The actual plotting of the boundary– Cartographers and surveys involved– Many years may separate “description and

delimitation”

Boundary Making• DEMARCATION

– The boundary is marked on the ground– Engineers and construction workers involved– Varies from stone pillars, to walls, to . . .

nothing.

Sweden/Norway border

Kashmir border

Boundary Making• ADMINISTRATION (DEFENDING)

– Government – police and military - are involved in patrolling and securing

India/Pakistan border

US-Canada border – in a bar

GENETIC or ORIGIN BASED CLASSIFICATION of

BOUNDARIES:This is another way to view

boundaries – it has to do with their evolution or genesis.

Antecedent boundary• Delimited before

effective settlement; before present-day human landscape

• May pass through sparsely inhabited territory

Subsequent boundary• Evolves as the

cultural landscape takes shape

• Results from a long process of adjustment and modification

• Usually matches ethno-national ideas

Superimposed boundary• Forcibly drawn

across an existing and unified cultural landscape

• Often proves problematic as irredentist regions are created

Relic boundary

• Has ceased to function but imprint still exists in cultural landscape

Once demarcated militarily, now relic status since reunification 1976.

Boundaries

Boundary Disputes

Definitional Boundary Dispute• Focus on the legal

language of the boundary agreement

• Example: boundary definition may say that median line of river = border. BUT water levels of rivers vary – median line may move back and forth (may involve hundred of meters of movement)

• Solution: Refine definition to suit both parties

Locational Boundary Disputes

• Focus on the delimitation and possible demarcation of the border

• The definition is not in dispute, but its interpretation is

• Sometimes language of boundary treaties vague so mapmakers delimit line in various ways

• Example: Colonial powers in Africa and Asia specified international boundaries carefully, but not internal administrative boundaries. Internal boundaries became boundaries of independent states – arguments

Locational Boundary Disputes con’t.

• In a few instances locational disputes because NO definition of boundary at all. Example: Saudi Arabia & Yemen – oil-rich border had not been covered by border for years

• Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to delimitation of border in 2000

Operational Boundary Disputes• Involve neighbors who differ over the way

their boundary should function

• Example: If one state wants to limit migration while the other does not, disputes may arise. Efforts to prevent smuggling across borders may cause disputes if both states are not equally invented in the process

• Nomadic movement of people & livestock across international border may = conflict

Allocational Boundary Disputes• Disputes over resources• Today such disputes

involve international boundaries at sea

• Example: oil reserves under seafloor in coastal waters sometimes lie in areas where exact boundary delimitation may be difficult or debatable.

• Growing area of allocational dispute = water supplies. E.g.: Tigris, Nile, Colorado rivers