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The author aims to briefly analyze the objective reasons for the growing interest in studying political, administrative, and cultural borders (border studies), which has over the past 30 years turned into an important interdisciplinary field, and the progress of their theory. Diverse approaches to study of borders can be divided into two large types: pragmatic and critical. The traditional pragmatic approach, based on analysis of border functions and mainly using historical cartographic, comparative typological, and statistical methods, has been significantly developed due to attention towards actors, in addition to the state: local authorities, business, NGOs, etc. The information base has been significantly enriched, and understanding of the importance of cross-border cooperation and border-related social practices has increased. The critical approach is aimed at studying the cognitive–symbolic functions of borders associated with their perception, representation as sign systems, the politics of memory, and discourse and narratives. Today, pragmatic and critical approaches are integrated, including in the practice–policy–perception model. To a large extent, influenced by geopolitical shifts in recent years, seven key topics have emerged in the growing flow of border studies, including analysis of the role of borders as a tool for controlling international migration and regulating other social processes, the widespread activation of the barrier function of borders at different levels, redistribution of functions between them, etc. One direction for further development of border research is noted: study of the relationship and isomorphism of borders at different levels. According to the author, isomorphism means the similarity of the functions of formal (state, administrative) borders at all levels, although in different ways and in different proportions. The reason for this similarity is that borders act as a means of adapting space to the redistribution of political influence between different actors and centers, changes in the geopolitical position, and territorial distribution of the population and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of global trends, the main directions, methodological approaches, and the most striking research results in the field of geopolitics and political geography in 2011–2021 are considered. Political geography is being widely integrated with neighboring scientific fields. Russian political geography and, to a much lesser extent, geopolitics are based on a wide range of concepts known in world literature. Researchers in these areas are promptly responding to current foreign policy and other challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic. Particular attention is paid to geopolitical publications about the pivot of Russian foreign policy to the East and the Greater Eurasia concept. Since the 2010s, the theory of critical geopolitics has become more widespread in Russia, operating not with speculative reasoning, but with large amounts of information analyzed by modern quantitative methods. The flow of studies of state borders and frontiers is growing. In such publications, a large place belongs to the works devoted to the growing gaps in the pace and directions of economic development between former USSR countries. Shifts in the topics of border studies are associated with a deeper study of security issues. Many works reflect the desire to preserve the positive experience of cross-border cooperation between Russian and European partners in a deteriorating environment. Most of Russian publications on regionalization at different spatial levels involve the Baltic Basin. The body of research on territorial conflicts and separatism is growing. Russian geographers and other scholars have made a significant contribution to studying the problems of uncontrolled territories and unrecognized (partially recognized) post-Soviet states. Conflicts around them are considered in relation to their internal differences, complex composition, intricacies of formation and identity of the population, influence on neighboring regions and in historical retrospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]