Current Border Research Articles

Borders, Citizenship, and Global Inequality: What Barriers, Pushbacks, and Passport Controls Reveal About Our Understanding of the Equality of Humankind

Abstract Borders are ubiquitous. As invisible lines, they contribute to a functioning world order and guarantee security for the people. In the form of walls and fences, they divide society and establish strongholds of prosperity that are not accessible to everyone. A similar effect can be observed in connection with the concept of citizenship, which binds people fatefully to a particular territory and thus significantly determines an individual’s life chances. This article shows how borders and their protection as well as the concept of citizenship challenge fundamental ideas of justice and traces discourses that seek to evolve the current border and citizenship regimes into a more universal and just form of human coexistence.

City-Text as Mapping a Territory: “Polish” Streets in Berlin

Abstract The aim of the article is to analyse, in a diachronic perspective, the street names in today’s Berlin whose bases are geographical names referring to places in contemporary Poland. The analysis reveals a purposeful city-text that supports the nation-building narrative: either by mapping the state’s actual geography at the moment of the name’s bestowal, or by including the territories claimed (literally or metaphorically), beyond the current borders at the time of the naming. However, the degree to which these street names and the intention behind them are decipherable today remains questionable. Once meaningful for their original creators, today they are partly or completely semantically oblique to the general public, as evidenced by their contemporary reception.

Ever-shifting border: West Bank case study, Palestine

ABSTRACT In 1949, the West Bank “Green Line” (or the “Armistice Line”) was established and drawn on maps of Palestine, but it is not a firm border: the line is continuously shifting due to its elastic and virtual nature. The border in the region has shifted to accommodate Israeli expansion strategies. Colonies, checkpoints, military areas, security zones, and a physical wall are the driving forces of border elasticity and dynamics. This study aims to shed light on the chronological border shifting by Israel, leading to changes in the current border situation on the ground. The research presented here focuses on a study area of 30 × 30-km sq, in which the border was shifted many times inside the West Bank region. Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies were used as the main analytical tool. The outcomes of the research are maps illustrating the border shifts and its reasons.

The Geopolitical Dimensions of Halayeb issue according to the Egyptian Political Perspective

Egypt is considered one of the most important countries with a large area neighboring Sudan, and because of its area, it neighbors Sudan from the north with a border line whose length is (1273 km) and constitutes (16.5%) of the total length of Sudan’s borders with neighboring countries.Sudan has known its current borders since 1899 under the dual rule of Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian), which drew and worked with these borders until its exit upon Sudan’s independence in 1956, which stipulated maintaining the agreements that it had previously approved, especially regarding the borders. However, despite this, the Halayeb problem erupted as a difficult crisis between Egypt and Sudan that waved destroying the relationship in the region by escalating the crisis to undesirable consequences.This crisis believes that both Sudan and Egypt have not been able to represent an Arab Islamic hope and the Egyptian influence in Sudan is a required contribution on the part of the Sudanese themselves.

Forgotten responsibilities? Nordic truth commissions, Sámi history, and the difficulty of transnational perspectives on historical responsibility

The article studies the Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish truth commissions dealing with state-Sámi (an indigenous population living in northern Scandinavia, Finland and north-western Russia) relations through the concept of transnational historical justice. The fact that three separate commissions are studying the history of the Sámi has been criticized by earlier researchers, but never from the perspective of intergenerational, and more specifically historical justice. Our study of the mandate documents and the report of the Norwegian commission (the only one published in the time of writing of this article) points to constructive ways forward that could acknowledge and better embrace the transnational character of Sámi history, especially in terms of historical justice. We also study in what way the Norwegian commission worked within and stretched the framework set by the mandate document. Our conclusion is that the lack of transnationalism in the mandate and work of the commissions leads to historical Sámi individuals and groups being forgotten. These are historical groups and individuals whose existence does not fit in neatly in the presentist perspective of the commissions, projecting the current nation state borders back in time. For this reason, historical justice toward these groups is also a forgotten issue in the mandate and work of the commissions.

Seven New Fragments of the Sanskrit Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra (manuscript SI 6781) in the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS)

The present paper introduces seven new manuscript fragments that have been identified with the Sanskrit Buddhist text — the Lotus Sūtra (Skt. Saddharmapuṇḍarīka). Until quite recently these fragments have had no pressmark and were revealed among the unregistered materials of the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS). The fragments represent different parts of seven pothi-type leaves of paper containing Sanskrit text in South Turkestan Brāhmī script, which was used for recording Buddhist texts in the 8–9 cc. AD in Khotan — the largest center of Mahāyāna in Serindia (the Eastern part of Central Asia within the current borders of Xinjiang). Seven fragments bear clear similarities in terms of paleographic and codicological features (type of script, size and shape of graphemic symbols (akṣaras), number of lines and line-spacing, paper characteristics etc.). Given the express similarities, it is reasonable to assume that all the fragments could belong to one and the same manuscript. Furthermore, it was revealed that two new fragments almost join with those kept under the pressmarks SI 1934 and SI 6584 and represent altogether two relatively complete pothi leaves. After the identification and investigation these seven new fragments were assigned the inventory number and the pressmark SI 6781. This paper includes description of the fragments SI 6781, transliteration, comparison with the corresponding text of the Petrovsky manuscript (the most complete Central Asian copy of the Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra), English translation, and facsimile of two fragments.

ARMENIAN-IRANIAN COOPERATION IN PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF BOTH COUNTRIES

By the will of fate and various historical circumstances, many architectural monuments are located not only within the current borders of their own country, but also in the territories of other countries. And the problem of each country is to preserve, protect and popularize not only the monuments of their people, but also the cultural and historical objects of another country. Naturally, over time, monuments deteriorate and need conservation or restoration, which should also be among the priority tasks of a given state.

Beyond the present, the nation, and Europe: Three different uses of history in reflexive migration studies

Abstract Interdisciplinary migration research is currently witnessing an increased interest in the impact of colonialism, decolonization, and expertization on present-day integrationism and racism. Tracing the genealogy of current ways of framing, categorizing, and governing groups viewed as “migrant Others” forms part of a reflexive research agenda that analyses migration as a product of changing constellations and categorizations. The article takes up this interest in the recent (and sometimes less recent) past in migration research. Bringing this interdisciplinary body of work into conversation with historical scholarship, we discuss how migration scholars make use of historical genealogies and we identify three different ways of relating the past to the present in debates about current migration and border regimes: We distinguish between what we term an anthropological “deep history” mode, a “genealogical” mode, and a “contrapuntal” or “disruptive” mode. This article argues for a careful, reflexive use of the past. We contend that both the alterity of past discourses and practices and their persistence and lasting impact can help us better make sense of the present in critical migration research.

African Union Mission in Somalia Considerations for Transition and Kenya’s National Security

This study assessed the implications of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on Kenya's national security within the context of AMISOM's transition to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). The objective of the study was analyse achievement of African Union Mission in Somalia mandates, to examine the effects to Kenya's National security and assess transition strategies of national security. The study was guided by Functionalist, Strategic and Securitisation theories. The research employed a mixed-methods research design using questionnaire surveys and interviews with respondents in Kenya's border counties most affected by Somali instability. Study findings established that, while a majority (52%) believe AMISOM has achieved its mandate to a moderate extent, concerns remain regarding the capacity of Somali Security Forces (SSF) and the overall stability of Somalia. In addition, study findings established that while progress has been made in degrading Al-Shabaab and supporting the Somali Federal Government (FGS). However, only a third of respondents believe the SSF has been adequately mentored by AMISOM. Despite success in facilitating humanitarian assistance and Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) projects, nearly two-thirds believe Somalia lacks the conditions necessary for long-term stability. The study concludes that AMISOM's transition strategy inadequately addresses governance and security aspects essential for Kenyan security. Weak SSF and FGS capacity pose a threat of failed stabilization after AMISOM's withdrawal. Additionally, Kenya's current border security measures are insufficient to manage potential spill over effects. ANOVA indicated an F statistic of 134.318 and a p value of 0.000<0.05 thus the Somalia PSO strategies significantly predict Kenya’s National Security. Regressions weight model (β = -0.451, P = .000<.05) implied that Nature of Somalia PSO strategies negatively influences Kenya’s National Security. The study recommends a revision of the AMISOM transition strategy to include capacity building for FGS and SSF, including forces in federal member states like Jubaland; allocation of sufficient time for a well-monitored transition with clear benchmarks; an exploration cautious negotiations with Al-Shabaab, contingent on a strong FGS and a hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping mission to succeed ATMIS to ensure Kenya's long-term security.

The Walking Woman: Border Representation Beyond Hybridity in Yuri Herrera’s Señales que precederán al fin del mundo

In this article, I follow the footsteps of Makina, protagonist of Yuri Herrera’s 2009 Señales que precederán al fin del mundo. In line with existing criticism on the text, I frame her migratory voyage as a form of pilgrimage. Departing from other readings of the novel, I center the protagonist’s embodied experience through her journey, tracing her corporeal sensations in order to understand the border itself as a living geography traversed by vital bodies. Walking emerges as a dominant trope in Herrera’s text, as the narration returns repeatedly to the protagonist’s determined footsteps. By understanding Makina’s journey as a pilgrimage, I reconcile the ways in which she simultaneously occupies a material and a spiritual realm. As an inherent element of pilgrimage, Makina undergoes a painful loss of identity, but also demonstrates her capacity for change by rendering her subjectivity fluid. This constructs the border itself as a liminal zone, a space in flux. As a walking woman, Makina offers a framework of border representation that moves beyond and answers the limitations of existing conceptual models of the border that emphasize multiculturalism and hybridity. Reading the border through the trope of walking, I argue, points to the political potential of migrants to rewrite current border reality.

Measuring the presence and incidence of cholera in Hindustan: New data from primary sources for the colonial era

We build a new dataset covering 90 years of Cholera spreading in Hindustan from 1814 to 1904. We gather data from a collection of primary sources issued from medical reports. We propose a harmonization procedure to make these data comparable and corresponding to the current borders of India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Our methodology is corroborated when comparing our newly produced data with other accounts, in particular Roger (1926)’s estimations. It opens the door to research aiming at estimating the effect of the successive waves of Cholera on the economic, social and epidemiological dynamics of the region.

Are the Current Borders Eternal? Nationalism and the “Territorial Integrity” Concept as the Sources of all the Geopolitical Problems.

Are the Current Borders Eternal? Nationalism and the “Territorial Integrity” Concept as the Sources of all the Geopolitical Problems.

The Risks to Germany’s Peace and Security Generated by the Reichsbürger Movement or “Citizens of the Reich” Based on Political and Religious Convictions

In recent years, the extreme right in Germany has expanded, the phenomenon gaining momentum. The far-right groups and organisations in Germany were, are and will be dominated by an ideology that amalgamates religious or non-religious ideas but that defends German culture and spirituality according to its visions and objectives. Adherents of far-right ideology combine these ideas with conspiracy theories, and on such a background, some of them change their attitude towards society and become violent. For example, right-wing extremists attacked the Parliament, the symbol of democracy, for the first time in Germany, namely on 29 August 2020, and later on 6 January 2021, protesters, including right-wing extremists, attacked the Congress of the United States of America. One of the organisations, such as the Reichsbürger Movement, which means Citizens of the Reich, who reject the current borders of Germany and want the return to those established in 1871, set up cells and planned activities recently catalogued as terrorists by German prosecutors, in December 2022 and May 2023. For the Citizens of the Reich, there is no Federal Republic of Germany because this country is part of a conspiracy and part of a satanic state system, and they recognise only Imperial Germany. According to the religious beliefs of some of them, the imperial constitution was received from God and must be respected, and they are in an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. The model invoked by some of them is that of Jesus Christ who changed society, erroneously invoking biblical precepts to bolster their claims.

Riscurile la adresa păcii și securității Germaniei generate de mișcarea Reichsbürger sau „cetăţenii Reichului” pe fondul convingerilor politice și religioase

In recent years, the extreme right in Germany has expanded, the phenomenon gaining momentum. The far-right groups and organisations in Germany were, are and will be dominated by an ideology that amalgamates religious or non-religious ideas but that defends German culture and spirituality according to its visions and objectives. Adherents of far-right ideology combine these ideas with conspiracy theories, and on such a background, some of them change their attitude towards society and become violent. For example, right-wing extremists attacked the Parliament, the symbol of democracy, for the first time in Germany, namely on 29 August 2020, and later on 6 January 2021, protesters, including right-wing extremists, attacked the Congress of the United States of America. One of the organisations, such as the Reichsbürger Movement, which means Citizens of the Reich, who reject the current borders of Germany and want the return to those established in 1871, set up cells and planned activities recently catalogued as terrorists by German prosecutors, in December 2022 and May 2023. For the Citizens of the Reich, there is no Federal Republic of Germany because this country is part of a conspiracy and part of a satanic state system, and they recognise only Imperial Germany. According to the religious beliefs of some of them, the imperial constitution was received from God and must be respected, and they are in an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. The model invoked by some of them is that of Jesus Christ who changed society, erroneously invoking biblical precepts to bolster their claims.

The effects of the spatial transformation and the dynamics of transportation systems of the city and its surroundings. A case study of Latakia

ABSTRACT Syrian coastal city, Latakia, is suffering from an urban sprawl towards the surrounding settlements. This research aims to investigate the spatial transformations and the role of transportation systems in the expansion of Latakia and its surroundings. The study was done by carrying out a statistical visualization of the changes in the number of transportation modes, the size of the population, and the spatial extent of the city expansion. Additionally, accessibility of the public transportation networks was measured using the ArcGIS network analyst tool. The research found that the transportation systems had been a major contributor to the transformations of the borders of Latakia. In addition to seeing an increased population and significant waves of migration to the city and its surroundings, Latakia city witnesses massive urbanization of its neighboring areas, since they have a high level of accessibility from the city. The local authorities are not able to control this massive urbanization. Therefore, these areas around the current administrative borders of Latakia are expected to be merged with the city as a result of further expansion. Comprehensive urban and transportation planning procedures could be put in place in these settlements to control the expansion of the city.

Narratives of geopolitical representation in the discourse of the Russia–Ukraine war

This paper explores the discourse of the Russia–Ukraine war to outline the dominant narrative schemas anchored in the spatial geopolitical representations of globalness and localness. It uses tools from the domains of critical cognitive discourse studies and narrative research (alternative futures, discourse scenarios, deictic space, proximization) to distinguish between two most salient schemas: the Global Conflict Reality (GCR) narrative and the Local Conflict Reality (LCR) narrative. The GCR narrative conceptualizes the Russia–Ukraine war as a growing international conflict, producing serious political, economic and material consequences for the global community. GCR uses coercive rhetoric to call for immediate measures to support Ukraine so the war can be stopped before spreading beyond its current borders. The principal narrator of GCR is Ukraine, though the narrative is re-contextualized in other countries located in geographical proximity to the conflict. The LCR narrative, performed mostly by the Kremlin, construes the war as a local conflict providing no reasons for foreign intervention. LCR is distinctive for its large number of sub-narratives appropriated for different geopolitical audiences, which include the Russian and Ukrainian people, and different audience groups in the West and the Global South. The latter groups re-contextualize the LCR narrative, focusing primarily on economic issues.

“Far from the Space of Tolerance”: Hungary and the Biopolitical Geotemporality of Postsocialist Homophobia

Sexuality has long been central to ethnographic constructions of exotic difference, an index critically demarcating the borders of European Modernity and its negative and positive Others, and underpinning both extra-European colonial domination and modern biopolitical regimes of subjectivity, citizenship, and society. Representations of Eastern European sexuality, however, were also crucial to both Western and Eastern imaginings of modern “European” selves, politics, and societies, and their boundaries of belonging. Yet while recent scholarship has drawn attention to reemerging European orientalisms and sexuality’s salience in postsocialist politics, particularly in relation to recent postsocialist homophobias, little scholarly attention has been paid to the significance of these histories of European sexual difference for the biopolitical character of current borders of postsocialist difference. In this article I combine postcolonial theories of sexuality, geographies of European belonging, and postsocialist studies of sexual politics to analyze popular, political, and scholarly discourses surrounding sexual politics and homophobia in Hungary. Melding historical debates about Hungarian belonging, discursive analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that dominant interpretations of these events constitute postsocialist homophobia as a particularly consequential “problem” reinscribing deeply rooted, and profoundly biopolitical, borders between Europe’s East and West. These readings not only naturalize an imagined West as a space of proper sexual citizenship and tolerance, masking its persistent heteronormativity; they also render Hungary a time–space of complex, ambiguous sexual-political resistance, essentializing its inhabitants as inevitable sexual others of Western Modernity: for some failures of proper sexual citizenship; for others avatars of alternative, sexually-traditional Europeanness.

Path of Chinese Cross Border Merges and Acquisition: Past, Present, and the Future

The cross-borer merges and acquisition came a long way in China and has experienced a significant growth in the past few decades, while at the same time encountering several problems that impede the further success of merges and acquisition with foreign companies, including lack of regulations and transparency, the blurry line between government intervention and company corporate system, and the difficulty of dealing with growing vigilance of foreign companies and countries which are gradually limiting trades with Chinese firms. The cross-borer merges and acquisition system in China is waiting for future reforms. This paper aims to investigate the cross-border merges and acquisition situation in the current Chinese market. Meanwhile, it also manages to provide several suggestions about how to give rebirth to the current cross border merges and acquisition market in China, including reducing the multiple stages required for examination and approval procedures, and adjusting relationship between the government and companies.

Arrowheads in the cultural-historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman. An Introduction

In this paper, the authors have examined 94 unprovenanced arrowheads (tanged and socketed) that are stored in the cultural historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman Province (Southeastern Iran). The illlegal possessors claimed to have discovered the arrowheads via illegal diggings in the Kerman Province. Most of the examined arrowheads were probably designed for warfare and are comparable to findings within current borders of Iran or its vicinity. Most of the tanged arrowheads probably date to the Iron Age of Iran (1450-550 B.C.). Most of the trilobate arrowheads can be compared to the findings of Achaemenid sites or resemble items that have been excavated from layers associated with the Achaemenids. Some of the Bronze Age arrowheads, however, could not be compared with any items that have been recovered from Iran or its neighboring regions.

Volcano-sedimentary interactions – A key to understand Cretaceous paleoenvironments in the Paraná basin (southern Brazil)

The Lower Cretaceous in the Paraná Basin record a large volcanic event (Serra Geral Formation) that covered an active sedimentary system (Botucatu Formation), before the fragmentation of the southern Gondwana. Therefore, the fluvial-aeolian deposits underlying aeolian deposits of residual dunes, were gradually covered by volcanic flows. Intense basic and minor acidic magmatism covered an extensive continental aeolian environment. The interface between the two units shows an aeolian environment during the early stages of volcanism forming deposits and volcano-sedimentary features overlying and underlying the flows. In six outcrops on the southern portion of the current border of Paraná Basin, in Rio Grande do Sul state, these deposits and features were recognized, showing the complexity of the environment and the processes associated with lava flows and sediments. They were formed by the interaction of consolidated or unconsolidated sediments, saturated or not in the water, with basaltic or dacitic flows. Interaction features and deposits synchronous to volcanism (volcanoclastic), later or in intervals between volcanic events (epiclastic) and only cover, with absence of interactions, were identified. Through the distinctive characteristics of the interaction processes between the volcanic rocks and the sediments analyzed in the volcanic-sedimentary features and deposits, the morphology of the aeolian environment of Botucatu Formation could be, by analogy, compared to the current aeolian environments. The proposed paleoenvironment indicates a sedimentary environment with different domains, categorized by their water saturation. The different siliciclastic components found in each domain allowed the generation of different features and volcanic-sedimentary deposits evidencing aspects related to the presence or absence of water among the proposed domains.