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Adhira Mangalagiri delves into early cultural delegations India and China sent to each other's countries. Nehru was perhaps more sanguine than his officials in his assessment of the communist government in China and its security repercussions for India. We now know with certainty that the first Indian prime minister saw that the recognition of communist China was inevitable; the People's Republic was a stable government with which interactions were essential for the defense of New Delhi's interests. [Extracted from the article]

Nationalism remains a major influence on international relations in an increasingly globalised world. Many of the wars that erupted after the Cold War have their origins in ethnic tensions, border conflicts, or national aspirations. Given this, the geo-politicisation of nationalism deserves more attention in the literature. The current study aims to further the area by considering the role of territorial disputes in spawning various forms of nationalism and geopolitics. It develops an analytical framework based on the existing border dispute between Nepal and India in the 'Kalapani' region. Post-2019, the Kalapani dispute not only has represented bilateral border disputes between two entities but also reflects the overall geopolitics of the region. Similarly, it also represents the rise of 'nationalism' as a political anchor point in domestic politics in both India and Nepal. The paper based its assessment on the primary and secondary data analysis. Drawing on the data, this paper argues that border disputes between India and Nepal have two facets that signal the rising nationalism in both sides and the changing geopolitics of South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The north western Atlas Mountains (Béchar region) act as refugia for relict populations of many species which highlights their interest as priority areas for conservation. Further work since the beginning of the last century has been difficult because of restricted access in a military area with long-standing border conflicts. This paper aims to analyse the temporal dynamics of the vegetation communities, to assess the floristic diversity of one of those isolated djebels, Djebel Antar, and to contribute to the knowledge of the conservation status of the species found. Surveys from 1925,1951 (published data) and 2017 (fieldwork) were interpreted and investigations were carried out on honey harvesting, production, and marketing in the Benzireg area to better understand and contribute to the development of beekeeping. A high proportion of endemic and very rare species was found. A tendency towards the homogenisation of the flora was detected with a decrease in plant diversity. Beekeeping is being tested as a means of enhancing biodiversity and contributing to the fight against vegetation degradation by reducing pastoral pressure. Djebel Antar retains its function as a refuge for biodiversity and may play an important role in conservation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While using polynomial functions to define window functions is an initial approach in studying the memristor element, it is susceptible to generating imaginary results. However, using window functions, including the trigonometric function, is a current field of research on the memristor element. This paper uses the trigonometric Blackman window function to present a new memristor element model and investigates its nonlinear ion drift model properties. The motivation of this study is the usage of the trigonometric Blackman window function, which presents a more detailed definition and leads to more accurate results in windowing operations. The Blackman window function can address the issues of border locking and terminal state. Numerical simulations have verified this proposed structure. Additionally, the analog realizations of the memristor element constructed with the Blackman window function have been achieved on a Field Programmable Analog Array, which offers fast prototyping, serving as an alternative approach for emulating memristors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge marks not only a record-setting achievement in engineering, but also a materialisation of ongoing efforts by the People's Republic of China to engage in cooperative projects aimed at expanding and deepening integrative connections with the semi-autonomous Special Administrative Regions of Macau and Hong Kong. This paper explores the colonial and post-colonial social construction of Hong Kong as a political-economic island, and the implications this carries into the tensions and open conflicts that have unfolded under the One Country, Two Systems agreement. Using the bridge as a case, it critically examines the geopolitical and biopolitical dimensions of infrastructure as a practice of subnational (de)bordering. The case renders visible a contemporary moment where infrastructure occupies a central position at the conjuncture of technology, advanced governmentality and shifting geographies of sovereignty in the People's Republic of China, within subnational city-regional development plans, as well as internationally in projects, such as the geographically expansive Belt and Road Initiative. A close examination of the Bridge project highlights the constructed and contested nature of borders, as well as the complex identities and ideologies that define them. [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]

Marine Spatial Planning is labelled as 'an idea whose time has come' based on its applicability to address spatial conflicts and deliver sustainable use. Legislation such as the EU MSP Directive 2014/89/EU and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 requires that neighbouring marine spatial plans are coherent and coordinated to address cross-border issues. However, the implementation of MSP in cross-border areas is complex due to different administrative processes, fiscal and legislative procedures. This study argues that cross-border MSP is challenging in areas that are faced with historically contested borders which limit effective delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Two contested case study regions: Germany, Poland and the island of Ireland are compared. To help understand contemporary issues, a bespoke theoretical evaluative framework, the 'Wheel of Integration and Adaptation' is used to identify the challenges of cross-border MSP. An in-depth review of planning documents, policies, legislation was undertaken alongside interviews. This demonstrated that in contested areas, cross-border MSP must contend with the following challenges: 'inter alia' geographical peripheries syndrome, schema overload, limited transparency and blue justice, diplomatic consultation processes and differences in planning philosophies. This paper concludes by presenting five interventions as steps toward advancing cross-border MSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present a case of dispute resolution from Pakistan where kinship leaders play a key role in resolving local disputes. Scholars often cite that such practices provide evidence of a failed state. However, I show how these traditional practices elucidate ongoing processes of boundary management. On the one hand, these practices reveal the efforts by non-state leaders to carve out their autonomy by taking on a role traditionally played by the state. In fact, their ability to management local/state boundaries is linked to how they manage boundaries within their communities. The state, in turn, recognizes or legitimates these boundaries when it is politically convenient or allows them to save face. I document such negotiations in my research and show how they are critical to understanding how villagers see the state and vice versa. The Pakistani case is important as the ubiquity of its alternate dispute resolution system problematizes the taken-for-granted status of the state and makes visible the mechanisms by which the boundaries between the state and society are continually negotiated and the implications for the citizen/state relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Monterrey has become a space of great inequalities and increasingly notorious socio-spatial phenomena. Its different problems have been used by the government and the private sector to justify interventions in working-class neighborhoods, as is the case of the “Independencia” neighborhood. This article looks to analyze the aspects that turn this neighborhood into a disputed space and identify how this is reflected in the territory through the (in)action of public and private actors. It uses a qualitative methodology supported by interviews, informal talks, and non-participant observations that were made in 2019 and 2020. The paper shows how abandonment and a lack of government investment in working-class neighborhoods is part of an urban revaluation process that seeks to attract private investment to these sectors and end the presence of those “others” who are considered a threat to the urban order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archival materials are repeatedly consulted to settle disputes before the courts of law. The main purpose of the paper is to examine the use of archival materials in the ultimate settlement of the border dispute between Botswana and Namibia over the disputed ownership of the Sedudu/Kasikili Island. This paper took a qualitative approach where documentary review of archival materials and other documentary sources were used to answer the research questions. The findings indicate that archival materials in their various forms such as drawings, maps, plans, reports, scientific documents, and correspondence by colonial authorities played a significant role as evidence that informed the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to legally settle the boundary dispute between Botswana and Namibia. This paper also established the need for archivists to preserve the reliability and authenticity of records over time for them to be trusted as evidence. The fact that the case was solved with access to archival materials among other evidence presented, is an indication of the importance of archives in the society. Although this paper contributes to literature on the role of archives in the resolution of boundary conflicts, it is limited in that the findings are restricted to a review of archival materials in the holdings of the Botswana National Archives and Records Service (BNARS) exclusive of archival materials from the National Archives of Namibia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OpenStreetMap (OSM) as one of the most successful projects of Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) has attracted millions of contributors to work together and produces massive open geographical data. However, the co-work does not always run smoothly since mapping can involve conflicted understandings of the reality. In this paper, we investigate behaviors of mapping related to territorial disputes to reveal the characteristics of contributions and examine the contradictions between ground truth as the vision of OSM and the theory of critical cartography. We perform our experiments from the perspectives of entities, changesets, and contributors using the full history data of OSM. The experiments show that territorial-dispute-related contributions have substantially different characteristics from various aspects but they cannot be treated as outliers either, considering that most contributors do not focus on disputed boundaries. Interpreting OSM data as a converging state to ground truth or equally opinions can both be inaccurate. We also find that mapping disputes may not be absolutely negative in a VGI project. We perform quantitative, large-scale (global) analysis of dispute-related mapping. The results show that territorial-dispute-related contributions and contributors are different from contributions and contributors in general. Territorial-dispute-related mapping is not an independent phenomenon for OSM. The contributors make much more disputes-unrelated contributions. Dispute-related entities have more (divergent) versions than normal boundaries, attract more participants, and are more semantically complete, especially for names. Dispute-related changesets generally attract more discussions. The spatial distribution of the dispute-related changesets is consistent with real-world territorial disputes and very different from that of all boundary-related changesets and all changesets. Contributors who participate in dispute-related contributions are generally more active. These users tend to have a special interest in boundaries but most of them do not focus on disputed boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By conducting discourse analysis on Chinese textual materials around 1962, this paper tries to inductively explore the national identities of Chinese people during the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict. It finds that China perceived itself as a persistent and resilient nation in the ongoing fight against invasion and oppression. The predominant social discourse around 1962 showed a strong enmity and resistance toward the imperialism which was then imposed on India. These national identities have formed a natural response as maintaining a tough stance toward incursion and repression, and have contributed to China's resolution to defense its territory with resorting to military force, even though it might not be beneficial in terms of diplomatic relations and economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of state classification practices have long interrogated how official legal categories are constructed. This paper analyzes the construction of "victimhood" in Colombia as a feat that required negotiation among international human rights organizations, local civil society actors, and politicians across the partisan spectrum. The Victims' Law of 2011, which sought to provide widespread reparations to victims of the civil conflict, originated from the concerns of the human rights community, yet the deliberation process leading up to the law's passage reveals the extent to which elite historical narratives of the conflict unduly narrowed the universe of eligible victims. Using archival evidence from congressional debates from 2007 to 2011, this paper argues that the broad conception of victimhood originally inherited from United Nations guidelines came to be constrained by disproportionate influence from politicians' personal understandings of conflict history, shaped by anecdote and the selective use of historical evidence. These rationales interacted with budgetary constraints to ultimately restrict the victim category according to negotiated temporal boundaries of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Brexit negotiations continue to draw criticism nearly two years on from the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, many media outlets have concentrated on making sense of what has been dubbed the 'Brexit circus'. In particular, significant media attention has been directed towards obstacles to Brexit's progression, such as the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the 'backstop' arrangement. Through an examination of different media efforts to explain the border issue, this paper will discuss how conventional reporting methods have been unable to make this issue comprehensible to the individual. This paper will suggest that a hypertextual aesthetic form would provide a more effective means of making sense of the complexity of the border issue and its relationship to global political and economic structures. However, an understanding of the border issue also requires an understanding of the affective reality of life in this region and the history upon which this reality is founded. In this manner, this paper also argues that representational regimes capable of conveying affective realities could contribute important experiential dimensions to efforts to render dominant political and economic structures both cognisable and contestable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border delimitations and border disputes were an important part of the early modern process of state formation and the consolidation of power. As such, they are often taken into consideration when studying political and dynastic issues, such as succession disputes, while maps are frequently studied as a form of visualisation to depict territories and borders. So far, however, neither the administrative activities involved in these processes nor the border treaties (Grenzrezesse) which constitute the most important type of source for this area of research have been studied. The aim of this paper is to examine this topic using the principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel as an example. This principality saw the creation and later on the expansion of administrative structures concerned with border issues from the 16th century onwards. The central aspect analysed in this paper is the process of how border disputes were settled. This was mostly achieved through border commissions. Each party involved in the conflict assigned representatives, both officials of the administrative institutions responsible for border issues (Grenzbehörden) as well as privy councillors (Geheime Räte) to serve as commissioners on these commissions. The result of their work were border treaties. These include narrationes explaining the circumstances of the conflict and of the commission, while the dispositiones comprise the articles listing the terms that had been agreed upon. Compared to administrative records pertaining to border disputes (Grenzakten), border treaties generally offer more information. This is why, when researching these phenomena, this distinctly early modern type of charter is of particular importance. It can serve as a compendium of an entire border dispute and, if there is a proper archival description, as a sort of finding aid for the record in question. This paper therefore also analyses the history of the development of this type of charter. Boundary maps, the third type of source discussed served to visualize and delineate the demarcation of borders, but seem to have been of rather minor importance at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined issues in democratic consolidation in Nigeria by focusing on the nature of the linkages among competitiveness of elections, regularity of elections and democratic consolidation in the country. The haunting experience of a protracted period of military rule in the West African state makes the subject matter of democratic consolidation in the country usually engaging. Even at that, extant literature has not adequately covered issues bordering on the linkages among the competitiveness of elections, regularity of elections and democratic consolidation in Nigeria. What then is the nature of the linkages among these research variables? The methodology of the work is qualitative and relies on secondary sources of non-numerical data for analyses. The paper found a position of disarticulated relationship among the study's variables. In addressing the embedded issues, it is recommended that independent candidature be constitutionally introduced as part of the electoral culture of the local government system in Nigeria. So that under such scenarios, as many citizens as possible at the local government level would usually become candidates during council elections. In so doing, competitiveness would have become totally practicalized and locally epitomized in democratic consolidation in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the Koper Captains of the Slavs (Capitaneus Sclavorum Justinopolis), named after the ethnic/linguistic character of the Koper countryside over which they held jurisdiction during the Venetian period from 1349 until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is certainly, at least in name, a unique position that has thus far been insufficiently researched. The main source for this study is the Book of the Koper Captains of the Slavs from the old Koper archives, kept at the State Archives of Venice (ASVe), which has not yet received a proper presentation, as well as archival sources of some other Venetian institutions. The paper also includes a Slovene translation of this document in the appendix. The book contains various stipulations from 1587 to 1724, especially regarding the collection of taxes, as well as general stipulations on the jurisdiction of the Captain of the Slavs. Its analysis shows that the annual obligations of the 42 Koper villages amounted to 2,605 lire and 8 solidi, of which the Koper Podesta and Captain received a bit over 419 lire, and the Captain of the Slavs a bit over 544 lire. In addition, the villagers had to pay special taxes during the Rižana fair (Assumption of Mary, 15 August), at Carnival, Easter, Martinmas, also some for Christmas and for hunting permits. Furthermore, they had to pay contributions for the wood for the maintenance of the Koper bridge, for the town bell ringer and the town clock. On individual village holidays, the village mayors also had to entertain the Captain of the Slavs and his entourage in addition to handing over the collected special contributions. The village's obligations to the fiscal (provincial) chamber amounted to a bit over 515 lire. In short, the obligations of the Koper villages to their Captain were substantial, especially if we take into account the numerous testimonies of the poverty of these villages at the time. The Koper Captain of the Slavs had a special role especially in the military organization of the Koper commune. He was responsible for the defence in the Koper countryside, oversaw border disputes between village communes, collected taxes, and was also in charge of lower-court matters. In addition, the organization of defence and control of the Venetian-Habsburg (Imperial) border played an extremely important role during various epidemics, as quarantines for travellers coming from infected areas were established in the defence posts manned by peasant soldiers (cernida) under the command of the Captain of the Slavs. From the viewpoint of social history and also for further research and comparisons, the Book of the Captain of the Slavs is very important, because in addition to the position's established centuries-long jurisdictions and role in the Koper commune, it also provides interesting details about the monetary value of contributions, from which we can understand the commune's social pulse, individual village fairs and the role of mayors and, in particular, which economic sectors or, rather, crops important for survival dominated the Koper countryside during the centuries of Venetian rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remembering Refuge: Between Sanctuary and Solidarity is a counter-archive based on oral history interviews with people who crossed the Canada-US border to seek refuge and advocacy groups working at this border in two moments of crisis: the 1980s Central American crisis and the 2017-19 crisis at Roxham Road. This paper foregrounds counter-archiving as a methodology, building from the oral histories to illustrate how borders and bordering practices are navigated and contested and how these lived experiences push back at state-directed logics and narratives of migration. By drawing connections across past and present struggles over mobilities and borders, we offer a critical genealogy of refuge around the Canada-US border. The oral histories collectively and individually contest state-led narratives of migration as a 'crisis,' the need for borders to be further securitized, and specifically of the Canadian state's generous humanitarianism towards a select few. We introduce the methodological choices, contexts, and limitations of the project's research design, and present two themes that emerged from the oral histories: the contested element of 'choice' in migration movements and the important roles played by resistance and refusal in the working out of borders. Finally, we emphasize that relationships between borders are crucial to understanding the histories of asylum around this border, and the political shift activated by the counterarchive of centering borders as lived, experienced, contested or refused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the process of the visitation and demarcation of the village of Gueychiapa, in the province of Xilotepec (Mexico), during the stage prior to the elimination of the congregation and reduction of its numbers. It analyses the organization of the territory, the transfer of villages and their position within the congregational order. It also examines the disputes among cattle ranchers, landowners, and beneficiaries of land grants; the Indian villages adjacent to these properties; and the viceregal administration, which was inclined to return the lands in order to reduce the number of congregated villages on them. The documentation consulted provides a glimpse into both the Indigenous villagers' and Spanish and Creole farmers/ranchers' interests in the control and use of resources such as land and water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By conducting discourse analysis on Chinese textual materials around 1962, this paper tries to inductively explore the national identities of Chinese people during the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict. It finds that China perceived itself as a persistent and resilient nation in the ongoing fight against invasion and oppression. The predominant social discourse around 1962 showed a strong enmity and resistance toward the imperialism which was then imposed on India. These national identities have formed a natural response as maintaining a tough stance toward incursion and repression, and have contributed to China's resolution to defense its territory with resorting to military force, even though it might not be beneficial in terms of diplomatic relations and economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper generalises the classical approach to structural change. • It brings together different ways of aggregating sectors and social groups. • Economic interdependencies can act as constraints to political-economic conflict. • Sectors and groups can hold different understandings of the system. • Such understandings and material and political conditions shape endogenous dynamics. The paper builds on the classical understanding of the interplay between material processes and political conflicts, but generalises it in several key respects. This approach does not assume relevant political-economic aggregations ex ante (such as industries or 'classes'); rather, it explores different possible ways of aggregating social groups and defining their interests depending on the situation under investigation. Moreover, interdependencies in the economy impose the need to keep conflicts within boundaries that are compatible with the viability of the system. Because sectors and groups can be aggregated in different ways, dynamics also depends on how actors represent the system and their position therein, and hence what they understand their interest to be. Different representations give rise to different definitions of competing interests and viability requirements, which in turn generate different endogenous dynamics of the political-economic system. The approach is illustrated through the examples of the Eurozone crisis and Covid-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global political and economic agenda cycle of the 21st century, interest in the seas has spread rapidly. The security of maritime areas, which are central in issues such as transportation, global trade, natural resource reserves, and transfer, has also become a part of national and international security strategies, especially since the beginning of the 2000s. However, different perspectives on the concept of "maritime security" lead to the lack of a single definition of the concept. Therefore, the factors threatening the security in question should be mentioned differently. The absence of widely agreed upon maritime security threats both complicates global cooperation on maritime security and weakens the fight against these threats. Identifying the most serious and common threats to maritime security is essential for joint action in the fight against them. This study aims to carry out a comprehensive analysis in defining the concept of maritime security and to identify the most serious threats to maritime security in the 21st century. For this purpose, 21st-century maritime security threats have been determined within the scope of academic studies, strategy papers, military documents, and reports published by states and international organizations. Then, the severity levels of these threats were determined through the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) Method. As a result of the study, the three most important factors threatening maritime security in the 21st century are determined as climate change (with a significance level of 0.3169), marine pollution and environmental problems (with a significance level of 0.2104), and sea boundary disputes between states (with a severity level of 0.1783). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Narendra Modi's administration, India has been implementing a pragmatic foreign policy following realistic principles toward China. By using methods of policy analysis, in combination with content analysis and discourse research, the paper demonstrates that India's policy toward China under the Prime Minister (PM) Modi's leadership is a set of strategic responses of a rising power to an assertive neighbor who is rising at global level. This set of responses includes a policy of cooperation when it sees China as a partner, a policy of containment when it sees China as a rival, a policy of conflict management when it sees China as a neighbor who has direct territorial disputes; and a policy of balance of power when it sees China as an opponent. The authors of the paper are of the view that one of the key elements in India's policies toward China is that it is a combination of both cooperation and competition aspects. In addition, it is to be seen that India has simultaneously used various channels to implement these policies toward China to secure its national goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade plays an important role in economic growth. Thence, a smooth cross-border transaction between Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore provides a significant implication in international trade. Currently, cross-border transactions face several issues during the crossing of borders between countries and, specifically, happens during the transactions of cargo. A very rigid documentation process within the custom clearance and theresulting severe congestion will affect the trade flow in this particular zone. Inconsistency of freight transaction documents at the cross-border also makes the transaction procedure more complicated and affects the performance of the manufacturer’s competitiveness. Thus, this paper explores the current issues at the borders involving Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore. This paper also initiates to figure out the challenges and some key success factors in modelling efficiency for crossborder transactions amongst these countries. A qualitative approach has been adapted to answer the proposed research questions. The initial results stressed that congestion, thorough and repetitious documentation procedures, involvement of many documents, as well as the time-consuming clearance of documents are key issues encountered during cross-border freight movement. This situation has caused several issues such as delays in freight delivery, losses in tax collection due to delays, reluctance to share information, and effects on the competitiveness of the freight supply chain. Development in infrastructure, information sharing, regulations, logistics performance, and customs clearance procedure can overcome the problems during cross-border Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore activities. The model outcome is expected to be smoother for the administrative process during customs clearance and it is expected to be able to efficiently reduce costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines spatial practices in the everyday life of the villagers in a South Korean border village. Focusing on the Yugokri Unification Village in Cheorwon, the paper analyses the residents' spatial actions as a lens to study how the villagers cope with the volatile border. It reveals highly intricate and discrete ways the residents use the space of the frontier village as a platform, despite high levels of control imposed by the state, for their struggles against the authoritarian vision by developing, augmenting and enhancing their spaces around them in their everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has historically been a major player within the Indo-Pacific region due to its rapid post-war economic expansion, technological advancement, massive overseas development aid as well as its cultural outreach. As the Indo-Pacific today is marred with various challenges in the form of maritime and energy security, border conflicts, booming population, developing economies, and rising carbon emissions, among others. The region requires a multipolar balance of power wherein nations can lead by example and concerted action towards creating a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for an extensively dynamic Indo-Pacific. This paper focuses on one of the critical variables of the region, i.e., the energy sector, and attempts to place Japan's role and contribution to the region's ongoing energy transitions. The extent and means through which Japan can propel itself and the region towards a just transition with the help of regional and international cooperation have been analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jammu and Kashmir has been experiencing border conflict since the partition of India (1947) into two sovereign states (India and Pakistan). Four wars have been fought between them and still the issue has not been resolved. Uncertain firing, the continuous threat to life, unsettled life, and restricted living conditions affects the quality of life of the common people living in villages near the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC). The number of ceasefire violations in 2020 was the highest number of ceasefire violations in the past 16 years. People on both sides are the worst sufferers of the military aggression between the nations. Children living in such a volatile context lack the required developmental opportunities and their future is highly jeopardized. A serious commitment to the peacebuilding and reconciliation process is the way forward. Reconciliation processes like the Tashkent Declaration (1966), the Shimla Agreement (1972), and the Peace Bus service (1999) have been initiated but could not sustain peace for a longer period. This paper highlights the reconciliation process between the two countries and the need for a sustainable reconciliation initiative to secure the future of coming generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although populism does not dictate a coherent ideological or programmatic agenda, some of its elements still leave distinct marks on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. This paper argues for the study of populism in its tangible policy impacts and scrutinizes the nexus of populism and foreign policy in contemporary Turkey under President Erdoğan's rule. Despite the abundant references to the 'people' in the populist rhetoric, it identifies personalization in foreign policy decision-making, nationalization in foreign policy implementation, and civilizationalization in the foreign policy discourse. Having established the patterns of populist foreign policy from a wider reading, this study then examines, generally, how populism has informed Turkish foreign policy and, specifically, Turkey's approach to the recent border disputes over the gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the State Border Geoinformation System of the Republic of Croatia (SBGiS), based on opensource technologies, has facilitated and accelerated the storage, processing, handling, analysis and visualization of large amounts of spatial data used in open border issues, as well as standard affairs on maintaining the regulated state border of the Republic of Croatia. Centralized data storage and their spatial visualization through an interactive map allows citizens to see the situation at the state border in real time, which significantly increases the safety of movement in the border zone, but also aids in the prevention of state border breaches. The SBGiS is the only system that has been established not only for maintaining a regulated state border but also for resolving border disputes and delimitation procedures. At the end of the paper, a proposal for future system upgrades is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of a municipality being in the "Brazilian border" on its criminality rates, focusing mainly on twin cities and the different arcs. It also identifies determinants of criminality in those municipalities. Firstly, the Propensity Score Matching Method was used to identify the existence of overrepresentation of municipalities in border areas in criminality due to their location and, next, the Spatial Tobit model was applied aiming to identify the determinants of local criminality. Our results showed that, on average, there is no effect of "being in the border" when all the municipalities in border areas and their different arcs are considered. However, when twin cities were analyzed, such effect exists and intensifies the local criminality. Regarding determinants, a difference was found between the municipalities in the Brazilian border and the country as a whole, in which economic advantages were seen to be relevant in the latter context, while the presence of the State reducing social disadvantages is vital to decrease public safety issues in border areas. [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]

Critical examinations of the enduring geographical myth of natural borders challenge the technical approach toward borders that tempts us to think about and act in the world in exclusively territorial and geometric terms. Drawing insights from and seeking to contribute to existing literature on the reification, naturalisation, and fetishisation of borders, this two‐part paper presents a unique case study of contingent bordering processes at Mount Changbai/Baekdu in the China–Korea Borderland. The first part investigates the making and remaking of the China–Korea border from the late 17th century to the 20th century, to reveal how the narratives of Mount Changbai/Baekdu as a "holy mountain" and a "natural border" were conceived and imposed to legitimise the Manchu‐Qing Chinese and Chosŏn‐Korean regimes respectively, and how these narratives were challenged and superseded in subsequent social and political circumstances. The second part investigates the complex ways these narratives have been appropriated by examining contemporary bordering processes as revealed in the commodification of mineral water, with a particular focus on the development of two brands of bottled water, one South Korean and one Chinese, both extracted from the Chinese side of Mount Changbai/Baekdu. This paper highlights the distinctiveness of non‐Western border concepts and practices, and the importance of making reference to them when discussing border and territorial issues in specifically Asian contexts with diverse traditions of territorial governance. It also points out the pressing need to investigate the contemporary socio‐economic implications of the complex intertwining of history, memory, and identity in borderlands. This is particularly the case given the surge of domestic and foreign corporate investment flowing into Asia's borderland regions, transforming 20th‐century economic backwaters into 21st‐century hotbeds of resource exploitation and commodity production, even while the "ghosts of borderland's past" continue to bedevil relations between cultures that have no contemporary physical borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The foundation of symbolisation is a substitution: a mediation between a Representamen and Object. The paper leverages this core mechanic to examine the substitutions within the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, which compose every act of thinking. Recognising it is a single instance: the Ego, which regulates this parallel mediation, the paper focuses on the exploration of dichotomies that result from the necessity to perform two symbolisations simultaneously. Concepts. The study's theoretical framework is determined by Charles S. Peirce's (1998) concept of sign and Melanie Klein's (1948) psychoanalytic theory. From semiotic and psychoanalytic angles, this paper explores possible comprehensions of the object in the quasi-mind (Interpretant in infinite semiosis) and actual realisation of code in the act of individual thinking (Ego mediating between conscious and unconscious symbolisation). Results and conclusion. The main result of the study is the exposure of dichotomies that structure the shared ground for the conscious and the unconscious symbolisation. This, in turn, highlights tangible constraints that the mind is subjected to in the act of thinking. Cognitive value. The study's main contribution is the high-level scheme of dynamics that hold the Ego in reality through the means of unconscious and conscious symbolisation. The study also incorporates into coherent model unexamined aspects of individual sign usage: it deploys psychic continuity into the conscious symbolisation process (by basing the model on the instance of Ego), which allows addressing the issues arising at the border of conscious and unconscious symbolisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on a 20th century Nepali intellectual, Ram Mani Acharya Dixit (1883-1972), and his trans-border activities for the promotion of the vernacular by investigating his integration of the progress of a language with his nation, his apotheosis of the vernacular and his devotion in strengthening prose writing for the sake of the development of the divine mother tongue. Foregrounding his linguistic activities such as writing, publishing and printing in Nepal and India, with Benares in particular, it will try to answer questions such as: What was the motivating factor that inspired him to write and publish in the Nepali language? Was he in any way influenced by the Hindi language movement that was at its peak in North India of the time? How influential was Dixit's role in standardizing Nepali? Besides this Nepali language standardization concern, the paper will also examine Dixit's idea of serving mother, motherland, mother tongue and [Hindu] religion through service to a language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the 'borderscapes' concept in border studies and cognate fields. However, there is a lack of dialogue amongst the proliferating case studies that have adopted the borderscapes concept. Arguably, the theoretical and methodological vagueness of the concept renders it highly appropriable. Yet, articulation of the existing patterns and common conceptual apparatus are necessary for theoretical development and clarity. This paper examines a range of analytical and methodological applications of the concept for their practical implications in human geography by studying the institutionalisation of violence in Melilla – a small Spanish enclave in North Africa. It argues that revisiting Lefebvre's theory on the 'production of space' may be useful for approaching the production of borderscapes through social practices and discursive tools. By examining the place and importance of imagination and experience in conflict situations in this border town, this paper clarifies how the borderscapes concept can be operationalised for analytical and methodological use in bottom-up border research. In doing so, this paper encourages a sustained dialogue between these diverse case studies by challenging the practical application of the borderscapes logic in field research and data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the means by which Ukraine has sought to address a critical and highly complex unanticipated policy problem. This is the emergence of almost 2 million internally dislocated people (IDPs) within the country in 2014 as a consequence of major, highly violent and continuing border conflict in the country's South and East. In large part, as a consequence of its financial and administrative circumstances, Ukraine has addressed this situation in what has been a relatively unique manner for the country, relying upon organizations other than a central government ministry to shape and implement critically important policy and service delivery. This paper documents and maps both the extensive array of organizations whose involvement has gradually led to the emergence of what has become essentially a fledgling system of multi-level governance (MLG) which has been critical to the nation's success in addressing the very difficult and complex policy problems created by massive internal dislocation. In so doing, the paper explores MLG, both theoretically and as it has developed in actuality, in terms of Ukraine's response to the critical problems posed by the need to address its large and serious IDP crisis. The paper also examines the issue of community adaptation by IDPs and develops two models of community response. In order to do this, the paper relies upon historical review, comparative analysis, personal interviews and the use of expert focus groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine has caused immense shock in the international community by the serious and repeated violation of basic rules of International Humanitarian Law in particular, attacks on civilians and civilian objects. In addition, methods and means of warfare have been misused on the basis of the precepts and limitations set out in the Geneva Conventions and, specifically, in Additional Protocol (1), as it has been shown by the international press and various international organisations. This paper has as main obiective to reflect on these two issues, bearing in mind that it is an active conflict for what seems difficult, at this time, to assess accurately and in its fullness what will be all the consequences of the war in Eastern Europe. Anyways, the breakdown of the established legal order that has caused this international conflict requires examining the Russian actions on Ukrainian territory to determine which principles of international humanitarian law have been violated and to what extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes a critical look at the sovereignty claims surrounding the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands. The dispute has long plagued Sino-Japanese relations and is considered one of the key regional security hotspots, with the People's Republic of China mounting an active challenge to Japanese administrative control. This article reviews the case for sovereignty under both the discovery and the prescription principles. However, the article concludes that one cannot find a compelling case for sovereignty under either principle in favour of either claimants. The paper argues that this is due to the traditional insignificance of the islands prior to UNCLOS establishing exclusive economic zones. Rather, the article suggests that to facilitate a resolution to the disputes, the islands should not be classified as islands under UNCLOS as they do not meet the legal threshold for such a classification, either today or historically. If anything, the weakness of claims that contributes to the intractability of the dispute today shows that traditionally neither China nor Japan has considered these territories as islands in a manner that would be in the spirit of UNCLOS. While such a reclassification would not immediately resolve the dispute, it would be a significant step to remove incentives for the further pursuit of conflicting sovereignty over the islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure has played an agential role in the securitisation of everyday life in the Karakoram high mountains of north Pakistan. Geopolitics bear heavily on this region where Pakistan shares borders with China, with whom it has aligned its foreign and security policy, and with India, with whom Pakistan remains embroiled in a long‐standing territorial dispute. Consequently, in the Karakoram, geopolitical anxieties have reflected inwards onto local populations through both security infrastructure and securitised infrastructure. In this postcolony frontier space, statecraft also frequently bypasses normative legal and administrative structures; such exceptions to normative law and administration have antecedents in colonial statecraft on the territorial margins of empire. This paper also argues that long cycles of military rule have allowed the military to acquire and project technocratic expertise, become custodians of state‐led development, and recently, to assume guardianship of, and to enter into joint financing with China on, construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that cultural and political strategies that appeal to citizenship and national identity can be used to regulate flows across borders. In this process, citizen bodies may be enrolled as key agents. Drawing on the National Friday Wear programme – a Ghanaian government initiative intended to encourage white-collar workers to dress their bodies in domestically produced textiles on Fridays to reduce the consumption, and thereby also the inflow, of foreign textiles – the paper illustrates that citizen bodies are both spaces upon which borders are inscribed and geopolitical actors that perform borders on behalf of the nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constantly shifting geopolitical-economic conditions of the Korean peninsula pose analytical challenges that existing approaches to the inter-Korean border have failed to address; they require a fresh epistemological perspective. The concept of a frontier, which has been widely employed in association with Western history, is helpful in elucidating these complexities. This paper claims that conflicting imperial interests and imperatives construct the inter-Korean border as a frontier. Once a geopolitical front line to recover lost territory and extend freedom, the inter-Korean border was relegated to the periphery as the Cold War order persisted. It was only after the early 2000s that a new geoeconomic vision of frontier was promoted in South Korean academia and policy circles. However, it is not a clear-cut transition but a more complicated competition between geopolitical and geoeconomic visions that has constructed the border in the form of a frontier. Examining the recent conflicts in border cities regarding the distribution of anti-North Korean leaflets across the border, this paper demonstrates that these imperial visions projected in the form of frontiers lay bare hope, profit, or desire but mask the suffering of local border people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the fields of conflict resolution, political science, and history, I am researching the effectiveness of mediating an end to current and future ethnic, territorial conflicts through international law—specifically an international arbitration process. I am using the Brcko Arbitration, completed as part of the Dayton Peace Accords, as a case study of the effectiveness of international arbitration in peace building. After three years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992–1995, Brcko was a multiethnic and multireligious city and was a cultural dividing line between the two ethnically autonomous regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its options were to join either the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had a primarily Bosnian-Muslim and Croatian-Catholic population, or the Republika Srpska, the Christian Orthodox Serbian area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper will analyze the international arbitral process at Brcko and evaluate the three main factors that make this arbitration worthy of continued use in ongoing and future ethnic, territorial conflicts globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a framework to analyse partisan debates that involves extracting, classifying and exploring the latent argumentation structure and dynamics of online societal controversies. In this paper, the focus is placed on causal arguments, and the proposed framework is applied to the Twitter debate on the consequences of a hard Brexit scenario. Regular expressions based on causative verbs, structural topic modelling, and dynamic time warping techniques were used to identify partisan faction arguments, as well as their relations, and to infer agenda-setting dynamics. The results highlight that the arguments employed by partisan factions are mostly constructed around constellations of effect-classes based on polarised verb groups. These constellations show that the no-deal debate hinges on structurally balanced building blocks. Brexiteers focus more on arguments related to greenfield trading opportunities and increased autonomy, whereas Remainers argue more about what a no-deal Brexit could destroy, focusing on hard border issues, social tensions in Ireland and Scotland and other economy- and healthcare-related problems. More notably, inferred debate leadership dynamics show that, despite their different usage of terms and arguments, the two factions' argumentation dynamics are strongly intertwined. Moreover, the identified periods in which agenda-setting roles change are linked to major events, such as extensions, elections and the Yellowhammer plan leak, and to new issues that emerged in relation to these events. [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]

Spectral clustering has become very popular in recent years, due to the simplicity of its implementation and good performance in clustering non-convex data. Constructing a similarity graph based on an appropriate distance measure for modeling the local neighborhood relations among data samples is crucial for achieving an acceptable performance in spectral clustering. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy spectral clustering algorithm for poorly separated data with arbitrary shapes. Distinguishing poorly separated clusters is a challenging issue since a border point of a cluster may be more similar to the border points of the adjacent cluster than to the points in its own cluster. We propose a local mean-based distance measure which helps in separating points in cluster borders. The distance between a pair of points, in the proposed distance measure, is defined as the distance between the mean of their k nearest neighbors. We also propose a new transitive-based method for computing the membership degrees of points to clusters. Our evaluation results on both artificial and real data show that both the proposed local mean-based distance measure and the proposed membership computation method have significant impacts in obtaining performance improvement over the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Insular Cases split the Territorial Clause atom by formally distinguishing, for the first time, between so-called incorporated and un-incorporated territories. The former was the "classical" definition of the Clause; the latter constituted a doctrinal innovation that did not imply the start of the annexation process. Balzac v. Porto Rico reinforced the distinction and made clear that un-incorporation could be a permanent condition. Recently, the Supreme Court announced a series of decisions regarding the territories, particularly Puerto Rico, that do not mention the incorporated/un-incorporated distinction--refering to "territories" in general, without any additional characterization. This paper analyzes the journey of the Territorial Clause from its singular, classic, incorporated version, through its split into two distinct categories (classic and new) in the Insular Cases and Balzac, to its present form as a singular, un-incorporated version that appears to silently replace the classic version. The possibility of a populated territory remaining in permanent limbo signals that current U.S. law views colonialism as constitutionally valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes bargaining interactions recorded in Ghana's Kumasi Central Market to examine how traders employ kasadϵ ('sweet/persuasive talk') in transactional exchanges. Kasadϵ —a compound noun derived from kasa ('talk' or 'language') and dϵ ('sweet')—is a genre of market speech that simultaneously incorporates Akan norms of verbal politeness and the art of persuasion. In interviews on the metapragmatics of kasadϵ, market women highlighted their use of complimentary address forms and deference markers to pamper (krɔkrɔ) potential and recurring customers. My analysis of recorded bargaining interactions, however, revealed that traders also wield rougher, more argumentative language—a style that violates the Akan ideal of politeness and blurs the boundaries between conflict and mock conflict talk. That is, while traders reported that kasadϵ denotes good, polite speech, actual trading talk incorporates a mixture of indirect, direct, antagonistic, and deferential forms. Using two recorded bargaining interactions, this paper presents a detailed analysis of these juxtaposed forms of marketplace talk. I argue that while both styles are critical in economic exchanges—one for maintaining customer relationships, the other for protecting transactional gains—each presents interactional and transactional risks. The tension between these competing motivations creates interactional ambiguity and requires moment by moment navigation. • Ghanaian market traders use (kasadϵ) 'sweet talk' in bargaining transactions to nurture exchange relationships. • 'Sweet talk' in marketplace bargaining incorporates features of Akan verbal politeness. • Traders also use a verbal form that violates Akan politeness and hinges between conflict and mock conflict. • Both forms are critical in economic exchanges but present interactional and transactional risks. • Amid economic precarity a single transactional exchange is a high-stakes negotiation; traders rapidly pivot between forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia on a scale not seen since the ceasefire of 1994. The conflict ended in another ceasefire on 10 November 2020, however, in addition to the theatre of war, the conflict has been prosecuted and continues to be fought post-ceasefire, through claims to cultural heritage which are employed in international organisations to substantiate the legitimacy of territorial claims. In this paper, we specifically focus on carpets and their display in museums to unpack the relationship between carpet as an instance of instrumentalised cultural heritage and the two countries' territorial conflict and claims. Focusing on two major carpet museums in Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh (Shusha) and Azerbaijan (Baku), respectively, we will explain how ostensibly innocuous claims of cultural ownership and authenticity underline territorial claims with violent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]