Author: Alfredo Musto – 02/08/2025
Review of Geopolitica, Vol. 14, N. 1/2025 – January-June – Border and Frontier. Geopolitics, International Law and Relations. (www.geopoliticarivista.it) – ISSN 2009-9193 – ISBN 9791281485211.
Alfredo Musto
By focusing on the spatial dimension, it is possible to observe world politics from a distinctive perspective, using specific categories and constructs that can both shed new light on multiple phenomena and open up new lines of inquiry.
The commitment of Geopolitica magazine to this approach is further confirmed in issue 1/2025 – edited by Tiberio Graziani and Prof. Federico Bordonaro – which focuses on borders and frontiers: concepts that, reflecting the liminal and interdisciplinary nature of the geopolitical method, are highly explanatory of the changing historical phases and, in particular, of the transformations taking place in our present.
The numerous contributions can be divided into three categories.
The first is of a historical-theoretical nature. Phil Kelly’s essay (Emporia University, USA) frames the issue according to the updated canons of classical geopolitics, arguing that in the contemporary era, while most borders have become less susceptible to change, they also present a greater degree of permeability, reflecting a changed condition of national sovereignty.
But how deep does the meaning of border and frontier go?
Gino Lanzara (Centro Studi Geopolitica.info) identifies their epistemological foundation in the concept of limit: both the awareness of the limitations of one’s knowledge and the constant need to respond to this by constructing ever new challenges aimed at overcoming them are inherent in the human condition. The geopolitical implication of this is that borders are not passive entities, but rather points of origin and encounter between different processes and subjects within a political dynamic that is never linear.
Manuela Cicerchia (CREA, Policy and Bioeconomics Research Centre), on the other hand, sees in identity the element capable of linking the evolution that leads from the Roman limes to the development of different forms and perceptions of borders and frontiers, developing an interpretative line that recalls the process of integration of imperial Rome and the Europeanist experience of Schengen.
A further foundation of the issue is highlighted by Andrea Komlosy (University of Vienna) in the relationship of reciprocity between border and territoriality in light of the evolution of different exercises of sovereignty by different entities over the centuries.
By juxtaposing the historical experience of Ancient Rome with that of the modern-contemporary era, the original contribution by Isabella M. Chiara (independent researcher) has the merit of showing how borders and frontiers are an essential part of the elaborations of the Ratzel-Mackinder-Haushofer triad, where both appear as a dynamic <<epidermal>> expression (p. 63) of the state understood in its organicist sense.
In the contribution by Giuseppe Romeo (University of Turin), however, they constitute a valuable measure of the advent of multipolarism as the main condition of a post-global world, between <<permeability and mobility>>, between <<ius imperi and interdependence>> (p. 561).
By identifying an evolutionary path that starts with the fortifications of ancient city-civilisations, passing through the Roman limes to the valleys and walls of more recent times, Gen. Mini explains the concept of borders as a measure of the plurality of interactions between populations, military conflicts and, last but not least, the issue of migration, particularly in its critical and contradictory aspects, which are often misrepresented within Europe.
The second category of reference for the evaluation of contributions can be identified in that of “new dimensions”, i.e. where the conventional-traditional geographical element disappears while other socio-political spaces, closely linked to complex technological dynamics, emerge.
With the aim of providing a representation of digital borders, Giuseppe Anzera and Alessandra Massa (La Sapienza University, Rome) set out to explain how the relationship between platformisation – the penetration of digital platforms into social processes – and neogeography – a set of practices, techniques and tools capable of representing space through a process of marked personalisation – gives rise to the production of maps as a politically oriented technological experience, closely involved in the contiguity between hard and soft power in international relations.
This contiguity can also be found in some respects in the contribution by Said Saidakhrarovich Gulyamov (Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan), which presents cyber peacekeeping as a new and complex political, diplomatic and legal tool for cybersecurity, aimed at protecting digital borders and resolving related conflicts.
Alfonso Giordano (LUISS University and Niccolò Cusano University, Rome) takes this even further, into another frontier of knowledge and political action: exogeography, as a <<necessary extension of geographical thought into outer space>> (p. 122), transforms traditional spatial paradigms to investigate the beyond-Earth as a wholly unique territory of political, military and economic contention. At its core is the High Boundary that opens up beyond the Earth’s atmosphere: orbital infrastructure, asymmetric distribution of access capabilities, gaps in governance, public and private entities, and multidimensional projects all contribute to designating this frontier as <<a rite of passage into a new phase of human territoriality>> (p. 132).
The third category of reference is that of specific geopolitical quadrants within which the historical events of certain borders are situated; events that, on the one hand, repeat themselves and, on the other, are enriched with new meanings. In this way, borders and frontiers are a vivid manifestation of the changes taking place in many areas of the planet.
Northern quadrant, Arctic frontier: Marco Dordoni (University for Foreigners of Perugia) reconstructs the position of the United States towards Greenland, highlighting how the declared American ambitions under the Trump administration are the effect of a more comprehensive change of pace in relations between powers affecting the entire Arctic region. North–Central American quadrant: maintaining the assumption that <<borders are not mere territorial delimitations, but rather social and political constructs reflecting diverse power relations>> (p. 387), Alberto Cossu (Vision & Global Trends) demonstrates the significance of the border between the US and Mexico in relation to the internal and external implications of US policy, far beyond the security and territorial aspects.
Mediterranean quadrant. Ceuta, both a border and a frontier, presents a condition of <<selective permeability>> (p. 31) which, explains Alberto Catania (AMISTaDeS Study Centre, Rome), is the result of the instrumental use of the migration issue with which Spain and Morocco regulate their alternating relations for their respective economic and political ends. The entire Mediterranean, however, is characterised by widespread instability as it is affected by the upheavals caused by the transition from unipolarism to multipolarism. According to Paolo Cornetti (Vision & Global Trends), this indicates that it is no longer a sea of continuity but <<a real frontier>> (p. 103) directly exposed to the ferment of a new hegemonic struggle.
Eurasian quadrant. The extent to which borders are also a measure of the crisis in international and regional relations is demonstrated by the disputes over the Aral Sea, where, as Giuliano Longo (Federico II University, Naples) explains, administrative fragmentation and a lack of legal framework are among the causes of the deterioration in water resource management. A response is needed in the form of an integrated governance model that goes beyond the disappointing cooperation mechanisms seen to date.
Equally problematic is the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan, whose fascinating history, which foreshadowed the complexity of the current situation, is retraced by Gianluca Pastori (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan); the same can certainly be said, between diversity and affinity as well as between past and present, with regard to the Tibetan question, presented by Francesco Valacchi (University of Pisa) through a brilliant connection between the Great Game and the Global South.
Near East quadrant. With a detailed geographical and political overview, Carole Massalsky (Académie de Géopolitique, Paris) highlights the importance of the Iran-Iraq border, suggesting a perspective that focuses on the elements of interconnection and interdependence rather than those, prevalent in most analyses, that point to a preponderant Iranian influence.
Indo-Pacific quadrant. Here too, we find an original take on established analysis, as Zaeem Hassan Mehmood (University of Greenwich) focuses on the role of emerging maritime technologies as a tool for redefining geopolitical dynamics capable of challenging traditional concepts of borders and sovereignty in the maritime dimension. a role, therefore, that is not secondary in the relationship between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Enriching the picture of contributions are the protests that have taken place since 2024 in New Caledonia involving local forces, the French authorities and those of Azerbaijan (Ferdinando Angeletti, independent researcher); a reconsideration of the message promoted by the papal encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) with a view to cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space (Giacinto D’Urso and Giorgio Giosafatto, Centre for Advanced Defence Studies); the alliance between the Third Reich and Circassian irredentism (Lucas De Arruda Zanani, La Sapienza University of Rome); an interpretation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in light of the dialectic between Chinese and American narratives as constructions of geopolitical imaginaries (Mario Gennatiempo); an analysis of current Russian-Chinese relations – in comparison with those between the EU and the US – in light of the category of strategic depth (Mark L. Entin and Ekaterina G. Entina, MGIMO University and NRU, Moscow).
The volume is available on the main book platforms (Amazon, Feltrinelli, Ibs, Libroco, ecc) and directly from the publisher Callive Media&Books WhatsApp: +39 339 495 41 75 callive.srls@gmail.com
