Thesis 100dpi

BORDERS
A border is a real or artificial line that separates geographic areas.
Borders are political boundaries. They separate countries, states,
provinces, counties, cities, and towns. A border outlines the area that
a particular governing body controls. The government of a region can
only create and enforce laws within its borders.
In their earliest forms, borders were the edges of highly organized
political empires such as the Chinese and Roman empires; later, they
became the expressions of centrally-organized nation-states such as
France and Germany, which tried to enforce their borders from adjacent
land-based national groups and states. In all cases, the police
power of states were/are critical to the creation and maintenance of
borders. Throughout history, borders ranged from controlled but otherwise
open, to restricted, to highly fortified and even militarized, and
thus borders effectively close off areas in one way or another.
US - Mexico
Israel - Palestine
Maginot line
China wall
US - Mexico
Most fortified
borders
Geographically, international borders are expressed in varying degrees
of severity: border markers, custom and immigration controls for
passports and visas, fences, walls, border guards, and even national
military troops.
70 REFUGIUM
WALLED
FENCED
HARD
B O R D E R S
Border types can be classified into soft and hard borders. Soft borders
include open and regulated and controlled frontiers. Hard borders,
referred to in this paper as fortified borders, include: wire fenced borders,
wire fenced and walled borders, walled borders and militarized
borders.
Today, the 145 land-based nation-states around the world (excluding
the 50 island countries, or 26 percent of the 195 countries in the world)
employ three major international border types: 15-28 countries (8-14
percent) have open borders; 88-75 countries (45-39 percent) have
regulated or controlled borders; and 42 countries (22 percent) had/
have fortified borders.
SOFT
Borders change over time. They could be changed through violence or
peacefully - when land is sold or after a conflict through international
agreements.
OPEN
European Union
Historical borders
REGULATED
EU - Non EU
USA - Canada
Types of international borders
Sometimes, borders fall along natural boundaries like rivers or mountain
ranges. For example, the boundary between France and Spain
follows the crest of the Pyrenees mountains. For part of its length, the
boundary between the United States and Mexico follows a river called
the Rio Grande. The borders of four countries divide Africa’s Lake
Chad: Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
When neighboring countries have similar wealth and political systems,
their borders may be open and undefended. For example, citizens of
the 28-country European Union may travel freely among any of the
member states. Only five EU members—Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland,