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Contrary to the conventional understanding of North Korean borders as classic barriers that block infiltration of outside influences, this paper argues that the Sino-North Korean border region has undergone considerable transformations, especially at the local level. By analysing local-level trans-border activities, it shows that North Korea seeks to develop the Sino-North Korean border region as a space of opportunity. Even the heightened political conflicts between China and North Korea and the tightened international sanctions against North Korea failed to dampen local actors' economic imperatives, particularly after the 2012 and 2013 decentralisations in North Korea. Local actors were active in driving trans-border economic practices and, in turn, transformed the Sino-North Korean border region into potential cross-border cooperation zones. Although there has been conflict and competition in border region development between North Korea and China, we argue that local governments and entrepreneurs' efforts to maximise economic independence in the border regions are persisting, and their geo-economic imperatives are important factors in reshaping the Sino-North Korean border region by initiating and advancing trans-border interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the memoryscapes of Cieszyn Silesia, Orawa and Spisz in a context of the border conflicts of the twentieth century. The regions located on the current Czech-Polish and Slovak-Polish border have lived through paralleled histories of the border demarcation after WWI, which was unprecedented there. In both cases the national minorities were left behind the border, outside of their home states. Their stories and memories are, however, not being researched together. This paper contrasts the patterns of memory production related to the border shifts in the landscape in both regions. Emphasis is placed on the memory sites, their narratives and memory activism related to the conflicting past. The results show that the main axes of both memory debates are contrasting. While the conflict over Cieszyn Silesia was most shaped by the short war in 1919, the lesser-known dispute over Orawa and Spisz was marked by numerous smaller incidents, assimilation efforts and a layer of post WWII violence. This has important consequences for the memory production. The other important differentiating factor is the scope of memory activism inside of the national minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I look at refugee women's narratives of border crossings and inhabiting borderlands. Following tracks and traces of feminist geopolitics, the paper unfolds in three parts: first I explore borders as political, cultural and material practices, particularly focusing on the sea borders of the Aegean islands as gateways to 'the fortress Europe'. Then I consider border situations within symbolic and imaginary spaces inspired by feminist critical poetics. Finally, I turn to women's stories, which were not so much about understanding borders and their contested politics, but rather about the risks and joys of crossing them at any cost, as well as about surviving the borderlands. My argument is that refugee women's stories of forced displacement challenge abstract theorization of borders and illuminate the importance of embedded and embodied practices in understanding the borderlands as liminal and marginalized spaces of transition, thus contributing to a wider project of charting feminist political geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of the state border. It emphasizes the fact that the state border is a multi-component and multifunctional phenomenon. It was proved that a legally established and internationally recognized border acquires a sign of politicality. The political boundary is a holistic and dynamic phenomenon, inherent in the internal logic of development. The issues of functioning and institutional support of state borders were generalized. The influence of state borders on the development of border territories was revealed. A scheme for the development and integration of contact border areas has been developed. The factors of contact border regions development were studied, as well as the process of various types of regional socio-economic systems formation under the condition of the predominance of state border certain functions. The importance of the functioning of state borders and the development of border regions for the formation of various types of ties, the level of stability of the border and the formation of a political environment have been clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes instances of the Indian leadership's choice of an escalatory approach in its border dispute with China, first in the adoption of the Forward Policy in the lead up to the 1962 war, and more briefly the more recent decision in 2017 to take escalatory action in response to Chinese activity in the Doklam area in the trijunction of the India-China-Bhutan border region. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how a focus on reputation as an explanatory factor may allow us to make better sense of how Indian leaders have in the past and continue to in the present make decisions on key issues of national security concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the conceptualizations of organized crime as both an enterprise and a form of governance, borderland as a spatial category, and borders as institutions, this paper looks at the politics of bordering practices by organized crime in the Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands. It posits that contrary to the common assumptions about transnational organized crime, criminal organizations not only blur or erode the border but rather enforce it to their own benefit. In doing so, these groups set norms to regulate socio-spatial practices, informal and illegal economies, and migration flows, creating overlapping social orders and, lastly, (re)shaping the borderland. Theoretically, the analysis brings together insights from political geography, border studies, and organized crime literature, while empirically, it draws on direct observation, criminal justice data, and in-depth interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Messages clés: Les élus du Congrès des États‐Unis formulent des demandes contradictoires de durcissement et d'assouplissement de la frontière québéco‐américaine.Deux tensions se dégagent de leurs discours : une volonté d'assouplir et de durcir les contrôles frontaliers; l'affirmation d'un sentiment de communauté transfrontalière et d'un sentiment d'extranéité vis‐à‐vis de ce qui se trouve de l'autre côté de la frontière.Les législateurs réclament des niveaux différents de contrôle frontalier, ce qui reflète des frontiérités propres aux circonscriptions ou États qu'ils représentent au niveau fédéral. Quebec borderities: Representations of Quebec‐US borderlands in the United States Congress, 2001–2016 Scholarly consensus holds that the Canada‐US border has unilaterally tightened on the American side in reaction to 9/11. A careful analysis of the representations of the Quebec‐US borderlands in the United States Congress leads us to draw more nuanced conclusions. In this paper, we surveyed all interventions pronounced by members of Congress between 2001 and 2016 on the Quebec portion of the border. We coded these discourses to highlight tensions between security and flow at the border and between assertions of a strong sense of community and a sentiment of otherness. Rather than witnessing a unilateral will to tighten border controls, our analysis sheds light on contradictory dynamics of bordering and debordering in the Quebec‐US borderlands. These demands shape borderities by influencing the policies governing the border, the experiences of people crossing it, and daily life in the borderlands. We complete our analysis with case studies of the most vocal legislators on issues related to the Quebec‐US border—Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont), Susan Collins (Maine), and Representative Mark Souder (Indiana) — illustrating the diversity of representations of these borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1918, the Republic of Poland, recovering from a century and a half of servitude, was in conflict not only with the former partitioning powers, but also with new nation states that were forming on their ruins. Lithuanians, creating their own state, rejected the proposal to return to the idea of a Polish-Lithuanian union. They chose the road to state independence, although, to do so, they often had to seek agreements with Germany and Soviet Russia. With the use of Polish literature on the subject, the article outlines the military aspects of the dispute between Poland and Lithuania over the Vilnius and Suwałki regions in the period when the foundations of the independence of both countries were being shaped, focusing on the period 1919–1920. The source base for the study consists mainly of documents of military provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article establishes a link between a creation of an epistemic community and a territorial debate while addressing the Romanian-Bulgarian dispute regarding Dobruja. Moving beyond approaches centered on an investigation of similar territorial debates over contested lands and their immediate outcomes, the paper primarily analyses the potential of a political conflict for generating a community of intellectuals who become involved in propagating their respective state and nation-building causes. Putting the case of interwar Dobruja into the context of "entangled history", the study clarifies its place within the framework of similar debates regarding other borderlands. Relying on the publications of the participants of the debate, the article claims that a conflict over a territory and the possibilities of its integration binds together influential public actors, various representatives of the local intellectual elite, uniting them in an unlikely epistemic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boundary-making in the Karakoram–Himalayan borderlands has found a diverse set of actors and expressions over time. Legacies from colonial borders are part of contemporary disputes about affiliation, participation, and space. Three aspects are addressed in this paper: first, the debate about ‘natural’ and ‘scientific’ boundaries for purposes of colonial territorial acquisition; second, postcolonial debates in the recent renaming game in Gilgit-Baltistan and its implications; and third, the attitudes of actors in exile and geopolitical players claiming to represent the aspirations of the inhabitants of Gilgit-Baltistan. The three perspectives reveal opportunities and constraints in border regimes that reflect power structures, internal and external modes of interference, and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is part of a more extensive research project being carried out at the Institute of Geography of the University of Buenos Aires, whose purposes are 1) to describe and analyze the South American border spaces and 2) to understand what role they play in national territory-building. A geographical description of the Argentina-Uruguay border space will be presented, using a model that considers six components: territorial dif ferentiation, frontierization, subnational territory, supranational territory, border places, and mobility. The conclusions will show the main spatial continuities and discontinuities identif ied there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]