Cross-Border Resource Management

Rongxing Guo

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780444640055
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Geografia umana

Cross-Border Resource Management, Third Edition covers theoretical and analytical issues relating to cross-border resource management. This book holistically explores issues when two entities share a border, such as sovereign countries, dependent states and others, where each seeks to maximize their political and economic interests regardless of impacts on the environment. This new edition has been completely revised to reflect current issues, with new cases from North America and Europe and discussions and issues regarding air and space. Users will find a single resource that explores the many facets of managing and utilizing natural resources when they extend across defined borders.

• Presents a thoroughly updated edition with new cases and coverage on cross-border management
• Contains new content on geopolitical issues, environmental impacts of armed conflicts, dividing and managing shared natural resources, exploitation, competition and depletion of border resources
• Includes new cases from North America and Europe and discussions and issues regarding air and space

Chapter 1

Border, Boundary and Frontier

Concepts

Abstract

Treated as the marginal lines of various political units, borders are either visible or invisible on a landscape: They have extension but no width in most circumstances. Sometimes they are marked only with stone tablets or they may be fortified: for example, the Roman limes against the barbarians to the North, the Magnet Line, the 38th Parallel of Korea, the Great Wall of ancient China and the former Berlin Wall. Stemming from the diversification of political borders, border areas are functionally incorporated by different forms of political status, which will therefore create different operational mechanisms of their own. Still various complicated borders – either natural or artificial – are always trouble-makers. Specifically, boundaries with higher degrees of spatial structure are of particular concern; so are convex and concave boundaries of which enclaves and exclaves are two typical cases.

Keywords

Border; boundary; frontier; artificial barrier; border dimension; convex border; concave border; enclave; exclave

1.1 Some Basic Concepts

1.1.1 Traditional Definitions

In the six dictionaries – Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (WUD), Collins English Dictionary (CED), the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), Oxford Dictionary (OD), the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (MWUD) and Macmillan Dictionary (MD) – the definitions on the term border or boundary are quite similar to each other. Specifically, a border is defined as:

‘the line that separates one country, state, province, etc., from another’ (WUD, 2013)

‘the dividing line or frontier between political or geographic regions’ (CED, 2009)

‘the line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions’ (AHD, 2009)

‘a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas’ (OD, 2014)

‘a line separating one country or state from another’ or ‘a boundary between places’ (MWUD, 2014)

‘the official line separating two countries or states’ (MD, 2013).

Obviously, ‘border’ is usually referred to as a line in all these definitions. However, ‘border’ sometimes has been defined as a narrow strip (or district or region) along or near the border between two areas (see, for example, OD, 2014; WUD, 2013). In addition, it is also usually used to define the part or edge of a surface or an area that forms its outer boundary (see, for example, AHD, 2009; MWUD, 2014; WUD, 2013) or the edge or boundary of something, or band or pattern around the edge of something, or the part near it (MD, 2013; OD, 2014). In a few of unusual cases, ‘border’ also refers to as ‘the frontier of civilization’ (WUD, 2013).

In the English language, the word ‘border’ has a sister word ‘boundary’. Both words can be used interchangeably. In addition, there is another similar word ‘frontier’: meaning ‘a border between two countries’ (MWUD, 2014). In Chinese language, ‘border’ (or ‘boundary’) and ‘frontier’ are written as ‘bianjie’ and ‘bianjiang’ in Pinyin forms, respectively. In both Chinese and English languages, ‘border’ has wider meanings in political geography than ‘frontier’ – a term that refers to a special case of border used to denote the sovereign limits of and divisions between independent states. However, this difference may not exist in other languages. For example, in some European languages, only a single word is used to commonly represent the terms ‘border’ and ‘frontier’, such as ‘frontière’ (French), ‘Grenze’ (German), ‘frontera’ (Spanish) and ‘fronteira’ (Portuguese).

1.1.2 An Extended Definition

You might say that you are quite far away from borders and therefore your daily life has nothing to do with borders. Not like that. Throughout your daily life there are various borders. (As a matter of fact, if an interpersonal communication can be defined as a special kind of cross-border relations, when you try to talk to a person, you are crossing a border between you and him or her, even if the border is invisible.)

In this book, I will use a wider definition on the term ‘border’. Specifically, borders can be classified into the following categories:

• Natural

• Institutional (both formal and informal)

• Functional

• Mixed.

Natural borders exist almost everywhere and can be found in both macro- and micro-systems.

Institutions are usually classified into formal and informal institutions. Formal institution is legally introduced and enforced by state forces, which are embedded in state operations based on laws that are enforced and monitored by the government. Informal institution relies on enforcement methods not supported by the government but usually have roots in local communities and are embedded with existing customs, traditions, rules of conduct and beliefs.

Functional borders are very common in the real world. They can be formed between any organizations, sectors or other functional entities or fields.

However, most existing borders belong to the mixed category. For example, both the natural (represented by either border markers or other physical barriers) and the institutional (such as political and legal) components can be found in a single international border.

1.2 A World of Borders

Borders are also diversified in terms of the components that form the borders themselves. There are various methods (or techniques) that neighbouring states can use to describe their political boundaries. And, in practice, more than one of them may be employed on different sectors of a single border line. Cross-border disputes often stem from common errors and intricacies in boundary description. Without clear definitions in specific bilateral (and, if necessary, multilateral) agreements concerning political boundaries, disputes might easily arise.

Technically, most of the international boundaries of the world can be classified into two categories: natural and artificial. Mountains, rivers and other natural barriers have been usually selected to serve as political boundaries. However, these borders sometimes cannot be precisely defined in practice and are usually subject to either the motions of earth’s tectonic plates or climate change (see Chapter 2: Globalization, Natural Resources and Borders for a more detailed analysis in this regard). Under certain conditions, this kind of boundaries could even result in border and territorial disputes (see Chapter 11: Territorial Disputes and Cross-Border Management for a more detailed analysis in this regard).

If there is no natural barrier significant enough to be used as a border, or the natural barrier is not suitable to serve as the border between two adjacent political units, a border line should be established via artificial means. Generally, a border can be either an artificial barrier or a geometrical line. In a few of circumstances, a border may also be invisible.

1.2.1 Artificial Barriers

Stone tablets, walls and wire entanglements are commonly used to act as artificial barriers. These objects are then selected by practitioners to serve as political borders. The former Berlin Wall was one example in kind. The Wall was constructed following the territorial division of post-war Germany by the European Advisory Commission (EAC). The EAC was established by the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), following the defeat of Germany in 1945. Berlin was divided into East and West Berlin under the jurisdiction of the occupying forces during the period of the Cold War. The border wall was finally removed in 1989 following the collapse of the USSR.

One of the greatest construction projects in the world, the Great Wall, or Bianqiang (Chinese: ‘border wall’), was originally built during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475–221 BC) in ancient China. Following the unificati...