The Dynamics of Interstate Boundaries

This book explains why some borders deter insurgents, smugglers, bandits, and militants, while most suffer from infiltration and crisis.

George Gavrilis (Author)

9780521156240, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 July 2010

216 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.28 kg

'Gavrilis has written a masterful book on a central problem that all modern states face, and yet, about which there is scant research - the protection of shared boundaries. He traces the roots of this problem both geographically and historically, taking us from the disintegrated Ottoman Empire to emergent Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Along the way, he offers rare and valuable insight into why states often pursue solutions to this problem that undermine their own border security.' Pauline Jones Luong, Brown University

The Dynamics of Interstate Boundaries explains why some borders deter insurgents, smugglers, bandits, and militants while most suffer from infiltration and crisis. Grappling with an issue at the core of the modern state and international security, George Gavrilis explores border control from the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire to twenty-first-century Central Asia, China, and Afghanistan. Border control strategies emanate from core policies of state formation and the local design of border guard institutions. Secure and open borders depend on institutional design, not on military power. Based on research in numerous border regions, this book advances the study of the state, local security institutions, and conflict and cooperation over border control. It holds critical lessons for policy makers and international organizations working to enhance border security in dangerous regions.

1. The trouble with borders
2. Four claims about interstate boundaries
3. Border guards, bandits, and the Ottoman-Greek boundary regime in the nineteenth century
4. The view from above
5. State formation and Central Asian peripheries in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
6. The view from below
7. Implications and interventions.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB]