1. BOUNDARIES and their EFFECTS

2. 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

3. Natural/Physical boundaries
Morphological Classifications of Boundaries
Natural/Physical boundaries
Water features
Rivers
Changing course
Thalweg, midpoint, or bank
Lakes
Shoreline or midpoint
Mountains
Peak-to-peak
Ridgeline
Deserts

4. 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

5. 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

6. Geometric/Mathematical Boundaries
Straight lines drawn on a map
Examples: Part of the northern United States’ boundary with Canada – est by a treaty. Boundary between Chad and Libya = straight line across desert

7. Boundary Making DEFINITION DELIMITATION 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”

8. 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

9. Kashmir border

10. Boundary Making ADMINISTRATION (DEFENDING)
Government – police and military - are involved in patrolling and securing
India/Pakistan border

11. US-Canada border – in a bar

12. GENETIC or ORIGIN BASED CLASSIFICATION of BOUNDARIES: This is another way to view boundaries – it has to do with their evolution or genesis.

13. Antecedent boundary
Delimited before effective settlement; before present-day human landscape
May pass through sparsely inhabited territory

14. Subsequent boundary Evolves as the cultural landscape takes shape
Results from a long process of adjustment and modification
Usually matches ethno-national ideas

15. Superimposed boundary
Forcibly drawn across an existing and unified cultural landscape
Often proves problematic as irredentist regions are created

16. Relic boundary
Has ceased to function but imprint still exists in cultural landscape
Once demarcated militarily, now relic status since reunification 1976.

17. Boundaries
Boundary Disputes

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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