Geography and Community of Territorial Borders

Abstract

The Ethics of Territorial Borders: Drawing Lines in the Shifting Sand. By Williams John. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006. 192 pp., $69.95 (ISBN: 0-230-00252-8). The Ethics of Territorial Borders , by John Williams, is part of a growing body of literature that discusses state sovereignty and the organization of political authority in terms of the nature of territorial borders (see, for example, Migdal 2004; Ganster and Lorey 2005; Hirst 2005). Since the 1990s, the study of sovereignty and borders has carved out a niche of its own. The field is populated mainly by political geographers, political theorists, and international relations scholars who look into the sustainability of state sovereignty. Their work has become increasingly popular in recent years due to the increasing level of globalization and the resulting questioning of the continued importance of territorial borders within the international system. The Ethics of Territorial Borders exemplifies the advances that this field has seen in recent years. In it, Williams observes significant trends that have stressed the “ethical contingency” of territorial borders. These trends have emerged mainly in response to the challenges of humanitarian intervention and transnational terrorism. However, Williams also seeks to temper the debate by pointing out that territorial borders may well endure as “trip wires,” marking the places at which, historically, conflict has been most likely to take place. He also notes that borders are places that create opportunities for engagement, dialogue, and discourse—stressing the …