Why do borders matter

Most borders that do not reflect geography do, even if the arbitrary decision is the result of war. Now we have the Islamic State claiming to be a new Caliphate and running roughshod over long-standing boundaries it does not like or wants to control. Should those who are inclined to fight the Islamic State accept this point of view? Because civil wars are messy, and it is difficult to put countries back together after internal bloodletting?

Those who zero in on the Middle East seem to ignore tensions over borders everywhere else. But those tensions exist, and, therefore, it is timely to recall the importance of borders to international peace and security.

Most important rules of international law—those governing the international use of force and military operations come to mind—are directed at states. Most international law originates in treaties between or among states: international commercial law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and the like.

However one understands the function of law in the international system, one role for the law is the definition of a state. More broadly, those who deride borders are unwilling to address why tens of millions of people choose to cross them in the first place, leaving their language fluency and native soil — at great personal risk. The answer is obvious: migration, as it was in the s between mainland China and Hong Kong, as it is now between North and South Korea, is usually a one-way street, from the non-West to the West or its Westernized manifestations.

People walk, climb, swim, and fly across borders, secure in the knowledge that boundaries mark different approaches to human experience, with one side perceived as more successful or inviting than the other. Western rules that promote a greater likelihood of consensual government, religious tolerance, an independent judiciary, free-market capitalism, and the protection of private property combine to offer the individual a level of prosperity and personal security rarely enjoyed at home.

As a result, migrants make the necessary travel adjustments to go westward — especially given that Western civilization, uniquely so, has usually defined itself by culture, not race, and thus alone is willing to accept and integrate those of different races who wish to share its protocols. Many unassimilated Muslims in the West assume that they can ignore Western jurisprudence and yet rely on it in extremis.

But implicit are two unmentionable constants: The migrant most certainly does not wish to return to face sharia law in Pakistan. Second, if he had his way, institutionalizing his native culture into that of his newly adopted land, he would eventually flee the results — and once again likely go somewhere else, for the same reasons that he left home in the first place. Borders are to distinct countries what fences are to neighbors: means of demarcating that something on one side is different from what lies on the other side.

Borders amplify the innate human desire to own and protect property and physical space, which is impossible to do unless it is seen — and can be so understood — as distinct and separate. Between friends, unfenced borders enhance friendship; among the unfriendly, when fortified, they help keep the peace.

This essay was adapted from the summer issue of City Journal. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter latimesopinion and Facebook. How a fear of germs infects our political views. Many ancient cultures espoused ties to particular landscapes and the resources or fishing holes they contained. This continued as certain of those city-states, later on, became empires. When, in the second century A. That boundary, like the famous Ming-dynasty battlements outside Beijing that we call the Great Wall of China, was a military installation—erected to slow invaders from adjoining lands, yes, but also to project power outward.

The question of whose sovereignty certain shepherds lived under, in notoriously liminal zones like the Pyrenees or Alsace, would remain murky well into the era when sovereignty began to be transferred from kings to laws. As the Harvard historian Charles S. Another was a series of increasingly bloody wars in Europe and elsewhere that culminated, between and , in a conflict that saw humankind kill off some sixteen million of its members.

Near the end of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson proposed that the international community might prevent such horrors if it followed his Fourteen Points, which became central, in January, , to the Paris Peace Conference. This vision was born from a war fuelled by the desire of Bosnians and others for self-rule.

But this idea also had its drawbacks. Such are the tortured roots of our current international system. That most of the U. Now that vision has collapsed, eroded by mass migration and anxiety. What changed? Since the attacks in New York, he argues, there has been a profound shift in how borders are conceived, installed, and sustained.

The most obvious change has been a physical escalation. Over the past eighteen years, for example, the U. Throughout the world, anxiety about terrorism has helped drive a trend toward states erecting boundaries to deny entry to potential bad actors. Even within these national groups, ethnic or religious minorities pursued independence: Bosnian Serbs sought independence from Bosnia, while citizens of the Kosovo region sought independence based on their Muslim identity.

The crimes surrounding the border disputes between these countries are so numerous and graphic that an entire court in the International Criminal Court is devoted to them: the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ICTY. Border issues often arise when outside powers draw borders in regions they colonize , with or without the consent of the people who already live there.

During the s and s, European countries colonized much of Africa. These European colonists created the borders of most African countries. The divisions often did not reflect the existing ethnic or political groups that lived in those regions. European nations, led by the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, competed to amass the most land and resources in Africa, with little regard for natural boundaries or cultural borders. By the late s, most African nations had gained independence.

As colonial powers withdrew from the continent, they often left a power vacuum that allowed old tribal conflicts to resurface. For example, after Belgian troops withdrew from Central Africa, two tribes—the Hutu s and Tutsi s—began fighting.

In , two new countries were formed. Rwanda was led by Hutus, while Burundi was led by Tutsis. Fighting continued until it came to a head in with a devastating civil war in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.

African leaders are working to establish stable, peaceful borders. In January , the citizens of southern Sudan voted to secede from Sudan and form their own nation. The president of Sudan accepted the vote. The border between Sudan and the proposed nation of Southern Sudan has not been disputed. The regions are ethnically and religiously distinct, with Arab Muslims dominating the culture of Sudan and Christian Africans dominating the culture of Southern Sudan.

Border disputes can also develop as communities seek to establish their own city. This process is called incorporation. Many rural or suburb an residents resist incorporation. They prefer to be an unincorporated part of a county , instead of affiliate d with a town or city. They say it will lead to more tax es and government rules. Other residents support incorporation and setting their own borders.

They say incorporating as a town or city will allow them more independence on issues of law enforcement, education, and land use. Kurds Way The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state. They often face hostility and violence in the countries where they live. For example, Iraqi soldiers destroyed more than 4, Kurdish villages and killed as many as , Kurds in the s. The Kurds have longed for their own stateKurdistanfor centuries, but so far have been unable to accomplish this goal.

Nations are rarely willing to relinquish their borders. Meandering River The border between Mexico and the U. During the mids, the river shifted its course southward, giving the U. For many years, the two countries fought over this territory.

The dispute wasn't officially settled until Friendly Neighbors Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, stretching 6, kilometers 3, miles. United Nations body dedicated to prosecuting crimes committed during wars on the Balkan Peninsula following the break-up of the nation of Yugoslavia in Regions are the basic units of geography.

Called the Rio Bravo in Mexico. Also called the Race for Africa. Also called the Great War. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

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