The Frontier Zone
| Author | J.W. House |
| Published date | 01 October 1980 |
| Date | 01 October 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218000100403 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
456
THE
FRONTIER
ZONE
A
Conceptual
Problem
for
Policy
Makers
J. W.
HOUSE
A
model
is
postulated
for
the
total
transactional
flows,
legal
and
illegal,
in
international
borderlands
(boundaries
with
flanking
frontier
zones),
with
particular
relevance
to
the
perceptions,
needs,
and
problems
of
dwellers
in
the
frontier
zones.
The
modeling
of
periphery-to-periphery
interaction,
both
positive
and
negative,
complements
the
core-
periphery
model.
Distortions
on
the
developmental
surface
in borderlands,
introduced
by
stimulation,
osmosis,
or
interdiction
introduced
unilaterally
by
national
policies,
disturb
the
structured
field
of
political
forces,
with
both
national
and
international
implications.
As
social
and
economic
gradients
between
states
change,
the
short-term
impact
is
often
most
violent
in
the
frontier
zones.
The
study
of
frontiers
and
their
included
international
bound-
aries
is
well
known
as
one
of
the
oldest
and
most
substantial
traditions
in
political
geography
(Minghi,
1963;
Guichonnet
and
Raffestin,
1974;
Sanguin,
1976).
During
the
past
decade
or
so,
however,
there
has
been
a
marked
shift
in
emphasis
within
frontier
studies,
both
methodologically
and
in
the
purposes
of
such
studies
(Institut
d’Etudes
Europ6ennes,
1970;
Istituto
di
Sociologia
Internazionale,
1973).
Given
the
widespread
and
diverse
characteristics
of
frontiers,
in
both
place
and
time,
it
is
difficult
as
yet
to
draw
many
generalizations
from
such
rethink-
ing,
but
certain
indications
are
already
clear.
A
thoroughgoing
systems-based
approach
to
the
study
of
frontiers
(Strassoldo
and
Gubert,
1973;
Teune
and
Mlinar,
1973)
offers
exciting
new
perspectives,
aligning
such
study
with
wider
developments
in
contemporary
social
science.
Second,
the
regional
context
of
frontiers
is
receiving
belated
recognition
(Guichonnet
and
Raf-
festin,
1974:
147-223),
giving
fresh
and
direct
impetus
to
the
neglected
and
critically
important
study
of
frontier
zones.
Third,
457
to
the
traditional
focus
on
the
effects
of
particular
international
boundaries,
within
the
framework
of
conflict
theory
(Boulding,
1962),
there
is
now
to
be
added
the
study
of
the
effects
either
of
removing
such
boundaries
in
an
era
of
limited
supranationalism
(House,
1969),
or
at
least
of
reducing
the
discontinuities
they
have
long
represented
for
social
and
economic
life,
and
the
circulation
of
ideas,
goods,
and
services.
It
is
true
that
the
political
world
remains
a
troubled
place,
and
frontier
problems
are
not
infre-
quently
a
prospective
threat
to
peace,
stability,
and
good
international
relations
(Boulding,
1962:
264-265).
Yet
on
the
credit
side,
the
frontier
is
also
an
international
meetingplace
and,
as
such,
potentially
a
launching-pad
for
international
coopera-
tion
to
mutual
benefit.
This
implicitly
creative
purpose
has
been
recognized
in
the
past
by
political
geographers
(Lyde,
1915;
Peattie,
1944;
Gottmann,
1952:
131-136 and
1973:
134-143),
but
it
is
now
urgent
that
rising
recognition
be
translated
into
more
positive
international
action
by
policy
makers.
Only
thus
will
the
transformation
of
the
frontier
from
a
traditional
military-
dominated
to
a
peace-oriented
role
be
increasingly
and
effectively
achieved.
This
is
as
true
for
frontiers
within
the
capitalist
world
as
it
is
for
those
within
the
socialist
world,
between
capitalist
and
socialist
states
under
policies
of
d6tente
and
between
all
devel-
oped
states
and
those
of
the
developing
world.
It
may
be
altogether
premature
to
envisage
the
rationalization
of
political
with
the
most
desirable
economic
boundaries,
as
postulated
by
Perroux
in
his
visionary
book
on
Europe
as
far
back
as
1954.
It
is
certainly
not too
soon
to
work
methodically,
in
thought
and
action,
to
diminish
those
international
tensions
which
seem
inseparable
from
the
existence
of
boundaries
between
states
throughout
the
world.
THE
FRONTIER
ZONE
It
has
generally
been
accepted,
in
both
theory
and
practice,
that
territorial
zones
flanking
an
international
boundary
usually
suffer
particular
impediments,
both
from
peripherality
within
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