Border

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Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, states or subnational administrative divisions. They may foster the setting up of buffer zones.

In the past many borders were not clearly defined lines, but were neutral zones called marchlands. This has been reflected in recent times with the neutral zones that were set up along part of Saudi Arabia's borders with Kuwait and Iraq (however, these zones no longer exist). In modern times the concept of a marchland has been replaced by that of the clearly defined and demarcated border.

For the purposes of border control, airports and seaports also class as borders. Most countries have some form of border control to restrict or limit the movement of people, animals and goods into or out of the country. In order to cross borders people need passports and visas or other appropriate forms of identification. To stay or work within a country's borders aliens (foreign persons) may need special immigration documents or permits that authorise them to do so.

Moving goods across a border often requires the payment of excise tax, often collected by customs officials. Animals (and occasionally humans) moving across borders may need to go into quarantine to prevent the spread of exotic or infectious diseases. Most countries prohibit carrying illegal drugs or endangered animals across their borders. Moving goods, animals or people illegally across a border, without declaring them, seeking permission, or deliberately evading official inspection counts as smuggling.

Border economics

The presence of borders often fosters certain economic features or anomalies. Wherever two jurisdictions come into contact, special economic opportunities arise for border trade. Smuggling provides a classic case; contrariwise, a border region may flourish on the provision of excise or of import/export services -- legal or quasi-legal, corrupt or corruption-free.

Different regulations on either side of a border may encourage services to position themselves at or near that border: thus the provision of pornography, of prostitution, of alcohol and/or of narcotics may cluster around borders, city limits, county lines, ports and airports.

In a more planned and official context, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) often tend to cluster near borders or ports. See also maquiladora.

Human economic traffic across borders (apart from kidnapping), may involve mass commuting between workplaces and residential settlements.

The removal of internal barriers to commerce, as in France after the French Revolution or in Europe since the 1940s, de-emphasises border-based economic activity and fosters freer trade.

See also

• Political science
• Geopolitics
• Political geography
• Hard border
• List of land border lengths
• List of countries that border only one other country
• List of national border changes since the twentieth century

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