Study of Borders
as Inspiration for Alternative
Geopolitics of the European North
Ilkka Liikanen
University of Eastern Finland
Rise of Border Studies
Increased Interest in Borders - Why?
• Great political changes of the 1990s
– End of Cold War, European Integration, globalization
• Methodological reorientation in the study of
culture and society, the so-called Linguistic turn in
particular
– Discussion about post-modernism
• Borders not just lines on maps but products of
constant re-definition
– Focus on social and linguistic construction of borders
Border Regions in Transition Conferences
as an Arena of Renewal of Border Studies
• 10 Border Regions in Transition Conferences
– Germany 1994, Finland 1997, USA 1999, India 2000,
Estonia 2001, Hungary 2004, Poland 2006, Israel 2007,
Canada-USA 2008, Chile 2009
• Books and publications
– Ganster, Sweedler, Scott & Eberwein 1997, Eskelinen,
Liikanen & Oksa 1999, Ganster 2001, Berg & van Houtum
2003, Scott 2006, Alper & Brunet-Jailly 2008
• Main Journals
– Journal of Borderland Studies
– Geopolitics
Deconstruction of Borders
as a Challenge to Geopolitics
• New border studies: Borders not merely territorial lines,
but socially constructed
– Not just frontlines of security politics but symbols of social
binding and exclusion necessary constituents of people’s lives
(Anssi Paasi)
• Process of bordering: focus on nation-building and
identity politics
– Not just nation-building from above but institutionalization of
practices and discourses of political community formation
(Craig Calhoun)
• Integration, nationalism and regionalization
– Changing scales of geopolitical bordering
• Critical geopolitics: overcoming Cold War divides
– Deconstructing securitization (Ole Wæver)
The Territorial Shape of Finland since 1323
The Boundaries of Finland in Transition
Fennia 180: 1-2 (2002)
Historical mapping in terms of
linear border line
picturing geopolitical frontlines by
projecting
modern national territorial state
back in history
Three conceptual problems of mapping the
borders of Finland as a
National Territorial State
since 1323
• Nationality
• Territoriality
• Statehood
Hartmann Schedel
Liber Chronicarum, Germania Magna, Dacia, Norwega Sweden Finland.
Nürnberg 1493,
The Symbolic Border Line
Olaus Magnus
Carta Marina et Descriptio Septentrionalivm Terrarvm.
Venetsia 1539
The natural border
Abraham Ortelius
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Septentrionalium regionum descrip.
Antwerpen 1579
Before early modern period
Concept of state not separated from that of
the ruler – the Crown
State administration organized through feudal
relation
– not through political structures linking
population and the ruler
The Invention of the
Linear Border Line
Andreas Bureus
Orbis arctoi nova et accurata delineatio auctore Andrea Bureo sueco.
Stockholm 1626
Mapping the border
of the Treaty of Stolbova 1617
(Detail from 1651 based on)
Andreas Bureus, Orbis arctoi nova et accurata delineatio auctore Andrea Bureo sueco.
Stockholm 1626
Boundaries and the birth of
modern state
The idea of the
centralized state
- and the fixed border line –
adopted as a common practice
in Europe in the
Middle of the 17th Century
Europe of Borders
Joannes Janssonius: Europa Exactime Descripta, 1645
Finland
and the Finnish state
The shaping of the concept
in the 18th and 19th C
Johann Baptist Homann: Regni Sueciae in omnes suas Subjacentes Provincias
accurate divisi Tabula Generalis. Nürnberg 1737.
Russia in Europe
Samuel John Neele, Josiah Neele
Minor Atlas, London 1814
Karta öfver
Stor Furstendömet Finland
August Wilhelm Eklund
Helsingfors 1840
Suomen Maantieteellinen Seura
Suomen Kartasto 1899, Suomi Finland.
Helsinki 1899
The Europe of Nation-states – and Revolution
Bacon's standard map of Europe
by G.W. Bacon, F.R.G.S., Weber Costello Co., [192-]
The principle of nation-states
and Cold-war geopolitics
Change of borders according to nation-state
principle after World War I and the breakdown
of multi-national dynastic empires
During the Cold War borders stiffened by
realities of geopolitics and supra-national
principles of international law
Europe of the Cold War
Iron Curtain
From Simple English Wikipedia
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Integration and post-national Borders?
Europeanization and Cross-border Regionalization
Northern Europe, AEBR 2007
Changing Scales of Geopolitical Frontlines