A new textbook (together with Vlad Zubok from Temple University) is underway. We hope to finish this four-year marathon in 2012. These are a few opening sentences from the book's preface:

Borders, borders, borders…. If you fly across any continent you will not be able to see countries’ borders unless they are clearly marked by oceans or rivers. Borders between countries, like fences around houses, are human inventions. They are products of bargains, disputes, wars, and new agreements. Borders appeared as a result of the struggle for territories and the rights to control them. Kings, princes, emirs, and shahs outlined their territorial possessions through negotiations but more often with their swords.  Disputes were endless and each new war produced new land configurations. Within the established borders governing authorities established their states. They began to pursue agreements formalizing the borders and promising not to change them in the future. Some of such agreements stood for centuries while others did not last even a few days.

Although today many old borders have disappeared, new ones have emerged. In 1992, the European Union was born as a prototype of a community of sovereign countries in which the significance of borders was diminished. Yet after the collapse of the Soviet Union a year earlier, 15 new countries have emerged and, along with this, tens of thousands of miles of new borders. About two decades ago, the border between East and West Germany had been eliminated. Yet North and South Koreas continue to be separated by a web of barbed wire an impenetrable field of landmines.

Almost every aspect of human life is influenced by the presence of these infinite borders-fences. Our basic rights and obligations often depend on the positions of these fences. People’s basic rights, freedom, marital status, employment, prosperity, religion, and even dignity are so often determined by the borders within which they have to live. Borders do not only separate. Linguistic and cultural similarities among groups living within the same borders let people identify themselves as nationalities. The vast majority of people on earth today are nationals of a particular state. This status brings certain rights, privileges, as well as restrictions. If you decide to travel with your American passport to any country of the European Union or United Kingdom, you can do it practically at any time.  Russians or Indians, however, are required to apply for a visa, a legal permission to enter. They wait for such permission like thousands of Jordanians, Syrians, Afghanis, Bolivians, or nationals of many other countries. Not everyone is granted a visa.

Some people rejoice when a border-fence is eliminated. In Romania and Bulgaria in 2006, big crowds were dancing in the streets at night when their countries were voluntarily limiting their sovereignty, eliminating border checkpoints, and joining the European Union. Others demand to be fenced off from their neighbors, like ethnic groups in Kosovo, Turkey, Abkhazia, Ossetia, and some other places.  Some fences are disputed like the one, 20-feet tall, that Israel has built to separate itself from Palestinian towns and villages.  

Even democracies are not always open to one another. Just look at the U.S.-Mexican border for example. Mexico is a democracy with competing parties and free presidential and parliamentary elections. Yet, Mexicans must obtain a visa to enter the United States. Many are rejected and try to cross the border illegally. American public opinion has been supportive of limiting the flow of undocumented aliens and strengthening the US-Mexico border. However, on the U.S. northern border with prosperous Canada, travel is significantly easier.

It is anyone’s guess about the future of today’s borders. They may remain there for centuries. The world might eventually find its comfort zone within some new fences. New countries will appear on the global map. Or you may see the borders vanish. But before the changes take place, whatever they are, we will have to deal with the reality of today’s borders and most importantly the countries they represent. Welcome to the field of international relations.