Borders and Walls

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Borders and Walls

• Boundary. n. In political geography, an imaginary
  line between two nations, separating the
  imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights
  of the other.
• Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary, 1911.

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Borders, Boundaries and Frontiers

• Borders, boundaries and frontiers are sometimes
  used interchangeably. But a legalistic definition
  is that
• A boundary is a line separating states
• A frontier connotes a zone, having therefore
  width as well as length
• (a border therefore can be either a line or a
  zone)

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History of the Concept

• In ancient Greece, imperial Rome and in the
  Middle Ages the concept of border zones
  predominated over fixed-line boundaries.
• Roman limes debate about how fixed this was
• Early Germanic peoples had no concept or word for
  frontier in a linear sense mark (march) or
  forst (forest) used instead. March meant edge
  or margin. They became more institutionalised
  over the Middle Ages.

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• The notion of a strict, linear boundary is a
  relatively modern conception, the need for
  defined boundaries arising as states developed in
  the post-Westphalian era and populations expanded
  into border areas and communicated across border
  lines. Exact boundaries, however, could only
  develop when map-making and geographic techniques
  were sufficiently advanced to facilitate
  delimitations and demarcation.
• Malcolm Shaw, Title to territory in Africa
  international legal issues, p. 224

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Language Issues

• Some in Britain use words interchangeably.
• America boundary is the limiting line frontier
  is the part of a country that borders on another.
• French frontière is boundary line or border zone.
• Same with German Grenzen.

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Boundaries and Frontiers

• Frontier is broader than just a geographical line
  it is a zone, with people living in it.
• Gottman, The Significance of Territory, p. 134.
• frontiers and boundaries are respectively the
  zones and lines which separate areas of different
  political activity.
• Prescott, Political Geography, p. 54.

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Why the Change?

• People and land as significant taxable assets
• Sovereignty over land rather than affiliation of
  people
• Security of political power
• Tidying up exercise i.e. French conception of
  frontières naturelles, emphasised by Jean Bodin
  in political philosophy, Richelieu in political
  practice and Vauban in military practice and
  economic theory (see Gottman, p. 34).
• Cardinal Richelieu, Testament Politique les
  limites naturelles of France Rhine, Alps,
  Pyrenees.
• Advances in geometry and cartography

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• Frontiers have no physical reality unless they
  happen to be marked or fortified. But, in the
  long run, that is neither a necessary, nor indeed
  a sufficient, condition for having a frontier. A
  frontier exists by virtue of assumptions, shared
  by people on either side of it, about where the
  frontier is located, and in the long run, about
  the acceptability of this location.
• Andrew Osiander, The States System of Europe
  1640-1990 Peacemaking and the Conditions of
  International Stability, Oxford Clarendon Press,
  1994, p. 5.

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• As the medieval juridical line became converted
  to a modern boundary its whole nature changed
  it separated political territories one from
  another. Cartography reflected this change with
  the rivers and towns that feature so prominently
  on early sixteenth-century maps being replaced by
  political boundaries on early seventeenth-century
  maps. Interritoriality had arrived such
  depictions of absolute spaces have a direct
  lineage to the modern world political map.
• Peter J. Taylor, Beyond Containers
  Internationality, Interstateness,
  Interterritoriality, Progress in Human
  Geography, Vol 19 No 1, March 1995, p. 9.

10
Taxonomy of Frontiers

• Two main types of frontiers
• political (separate individual states)
• settlement (developed from undeveloped).
• But the first of these are rare these days.
  Usually a temporary measure (ie US/Canada, de
  facto limit of sovereignty).
• Secondary do still exist (i.e. desert/polar
  regions undeveloped due to technical lack).

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Changing Frontiers

• Annexation and conquest
• Marches become permanent (military zones to
  defend, became states)
• Buffer states
• Spheres of interest/influence (satellite states)
• Formal treaties imposed by external powers,
  negotiated settlements, UN, etc.
• Inherit boundaries of colonies on independence

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Stages of Boundary Making

• Allocation, general shape, straight lines,
  coordinates of latitude/longitude
• Delimitation, selection of specific boundary
  sites
• Demarcation, marked by pillars, cleared vistas,
  fences, etc.
• (Management)

13

• 1907 Romanes Lecture on the subject of Frontiers
  by Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India
  (1898-1905) and British Foreign Secretary 1919-24
  
• http//www-ibru.dur.ac.uk/docs/curzon1.html

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Some Examples

• US-Canadian border
• Kenya-Tanzania
• Ethiopia-Eritrea
• Antarctica
• Iraq-Syria
• Botswana Kalahari desert
• US-Mexico
• Israel-Lebanon, Israel-Syria, West Bank wall
• Swaziland-South Africa
• Hong Kong-China

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The American War of Independence ended in 1783
with a humiliating defeat for Britain. The red
line was used by the British negotiating for
peace with the Americans to demonstrate their
interpretation of the boundary between the United
States and the provinces which later formed
Canada. The map was presented to George III to
show him how the proposed boundaries might work.
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• These boundaries were, in the event, never put
  into practice. As the map was not included in the
  final treaty and as it was found to be inaccurate
  anyway further arbitration was later required.
  This means that, as shown on the modern map of
  the area, the boundaries today differ from those
  proposed on the 'Red Lined Map'.
• Text and maps on last 2 slides taken from
  www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/ lieland/m3-0-1.html
  (link now dead)

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US-Canadian Border Mid-West
Drummond Island
Windsor, Ontario
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US-Canada

• The 49th-parallel boundary between Canada and
  the United States is considered antecedent in
  terms of its relationship to subsequent
  colonisation (its superimposed nature in terms of
  the indigenous populations over which it passed
  being generally neglected). Like other
  geometrical boundaries, it is unrelated to
  underlying patterns of terrain, and though the
  boundary was politically acceptable to both
  parties the International Joint Commission was
  concerned with problems involving no less than
  fourteen rivers and lakes crossing this
  boundary.
• Richard Muir, Modern Political Geography,
  London Macmillan, 1981, pp. 132-3.

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US-Canadian Border West Side
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Africa

• Divisions in Africa are largely fictitious,
  with the borders imposed by the European.
• Uti possidetis inherit boundaries of colonies
  on independence seen also especially in South
  America.
• In some cases the flanking states have never
  been able to agree on another line more closely
  related to the landscape in others the line
  traverses through unattractive deserts where the
  states concerned have no present intention of
  developing. In East Africa straight boundaries
  were preserved between Kenya and Tanganyika
  because both were under British Administration.
• Prescott, Political Geography, p. 63

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Ethiopia-Eritrea

• The boundary between Ethiopia and Eritrea has
  been disputed for many years, and was poorly
  delimited and demarcated.
• Between 1998 and 2000 a war was fought between
  the two countries over this boundary.
• Following an arbitration process an independent
  boundary commission published a delimitation
  decision in April 2002 and sought to commence
  demarcation of the boundary on the ground.

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Ethiopia-Eritrea

• However, Ethiopia objected to aspects of the
  delimitation - in particular the fact that the
  boundary placed the village of Badme (where the
  boundary dispute first erupted) within Eritrea -
  and has refused to cooperate in the demarcation
  process.
• The two sides are still in dispute. The boundary
  commission has used aerial photography to
  identify points at which boundary pillars should
  be erected unless the parties agree otherwise.
  They proposed that if no agreement was reached by
  the end of November 2007 the boundary
  'demarcated' by the commission will become
  legally binding. But Ethiopia still occupies
  Badme the resolution has not been reached and
  skirmishes continue.

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British Mandate from Ottoman Empire
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Sykes-Picot agreement
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https//www.youtube.com/watch?vi357G1HuFcI
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BBC News June, 25 July, 22 August, 10
September, 13 October
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Financial Times
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• https//info.publicintelligence.net/DoS-Syria-ISIL
  .pdf

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Iraqi and Syrian Towns and Cities seized by the
Islamic State and its allies

• https//maps.google.com/maps/u/0/ms?ieUTF8hlen
  oeUTF8msa0msid206503076099972915830.0004fb810
  21906110e889tmsourceembedll34.939985,41.6162
  11spn6.302619,12.304687z6dgfeature

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Botswana and Kalahari desert

• Indigenous San or Basarwa people of this area,
  often known as the Bushmen conflict between
  their sense of space and the government of
  Botswana
• Central Kalahari Game Reserve
• Created 1961
• Independence 1966, new settlements created
  outside the reserve
• Key issues
• Wildlife in reserve
• Diamonds
• Two different spatial logics
• 2006 court ruling that eviction was illegal and
  that they could return

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The End of Borders?

• In the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War,
  there was talk of the end of territory,
  deterritorialisation, or the end of borders.
• Europe Schengenland
• Global flows of goods, people, capital and labour

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A rebordered world?

• US-Mexico border, and US-Canadian border
• Israels wall/fence/border/security barrier in
  the West Bank
• Other borders being fenced across the world

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http//shelf3d.com/Search/Uploaded20by20CCIGchan
nel
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Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall,
why are leading democracies like the United
States, India and Israel building massive walls
and fences on their borders? Despite predictions
of a borderless world through globalization,
these three countries alone have built an
astonishing combined total of 5,700 kilometers of
security barriers. In this groundbreaking work,
Reece Jones analyzes how these controversial
border security projects were justified in their
respective countries, what consequences these
physical barriers have on the lives of those
living in these newly securitized spaces, and
what long-term effects the hardening of political
borders will have in these societies and
globally. Border Walls is a bold, important
intervention that demonstrates that the exclusion
and violence necessary to secure the borders of
the modern state often undermine the very ideals
of freedom and democracy they are meant to
protect.
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