The Strategic Development of Border Areas: Explaining Variation in Interaction Opportunity Across Land Borders

Abstract

The ability to interact with others is a necessary condition for the emergence of both cooperative and conflictual interstate relations. Yet, the spaces separating states vary in terms of the opportunities they offer for contacts to take place: some borders are difficult to traverse, others are not. Building on Harvey Starr and G. Dale Thomas's work on the permeability of land borders, we test the three most prominent hypotheses about the forces that shape cross-border interaction opportunities. The results confirm that that the desirability of trade influences the accessibility of borders. However, the anticipated relationship between state capacity and accessibility does not materialize clearly. Finally, our results suggest that governments invest in transportation infrastructure when facing threatening neighbors, resolving a debate over the relationship between mobility and security in favor of those who argue that accessible borders facilitate military defense.