Borders: A Very Short Introduction

by Diener, Alexander C.; Hagen, Joshua

• ISBN13: 9780199731503
• ISBN10: 0199731500
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. Highlighting the historical development andcontinued relevance of borders, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the impact borders have on a range of issues, such as economic development, inter- and intra-state conflict, global terrorism, migration,nationalism, international law, environmental sustainability, and natural resource management. Diener and Hagen demonstrate how and why borders have been, are currently, and will undoubtedly remain hot topics across the social sciences and in the global headlines for years to come.

Author Biography

Alexander C. Diener is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas. He is the author of One Homeland or Two?: Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia's Kazakhs.

Joshua Hagen is Professor of Geography at Marshall University. He is the co-editor of Borderlines and Borderlands: Political Oddities at the Edge of the National State (with Alexander C. Diener) and author of Preservation, Tourism and Nationalism: The Jewel of the German Past.

Table of Contents

A Very Bordered World

Borders and Territory in the Ancient World

The Modern State System

The Practice of Bordering

Border Crossers and Border Crossings

Cross-border Institutions and Systems

A Very Bordered Future

Further Reading

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.