EUROPEAN BORDERS: A THEORETICAL APPROACH
EUROPEAN BORDERS: A THEORETICAL APPROACH

Summary/Abstract: Borders are commonplace boundaries that can be found on any world map. They are an accurate representation of the political organization of states, but they are inadequate for mapping the reality and diversity of Europe’s regions, incapable of considering peoples on multiple scales of belonging. More complex ‘spatial fringes’ are in themselves part of the European heritage, within a framework that relies on federative interlocking more than on a binary juxtaposition of jurisdictional entities. What about Europe’s external borders? They can be envisaged as margins and confines (in Russia, Turkey and the Mediterranean) with limits fluctuating throughout history according to the power of civilizations. Rather than reducing these “borders” to walls, it is necessary to make them thicker, and use the diplomatic intelligence inherited from centuries of confrontation with borders to control what others manage with fences and machines.

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