Geographia Polonica (2018) vol. 91, iss. 1

Abstract

This essay focuses attention on aspects of border politics that give evidence of nation-building and national consolidation processes in Central Europe. In a normative, policy-oriented sense this is a question of borders as framing conditions for regional development. In a more critical and analytical sense this involves interrogating the actual use of borders in politically and ideologically framing national interests within a wider Europeancontext. The essay begins with a brief discussion of Europeanisation processes understood in terms of the promotion of cross-border cooperation (CBC) in Central Europe. Here, the significance of national structural conditions for implementation of Cohesion and regional policies and hence CBC will be discussed. One result that emerges is that while EU-European principles of cross-border cooperation have been partly mainstreamed into regional development policies they have at the same time been superimposed by the domestication of EU policies in the interest of nation-building. More specific evidence is then provided by Hungarian experience where national scale and nation-building have played key roles in conditioning the quality of cross-border cooperation and in the framing of state borders as resources. Attention will focus on: (1) Hungarian exploitation of CBC in the service of ethnopolitical development objectives and (2) Hungary’s recent policy of border securitisation which essentially entails a re-nationalisation of its border regime and a framing of the physical border as a protective barrier against threats to national and European identity.

Keywords: Central Europe, Hungary, borders, border politics, national scale, cross-border cooperation

James Wesley Scott [james.scott@uef.fi], Karelian Institute University of Eastern Finland Yliopistokatu 2, FI-80100 Joensuu: Finland; Department of Economic Geography University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland

Abstract

This article deals with changes in political boundaries, border regimes and border policies that have taken place in the area between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, which corresponds in the broadest sense with the term ‘Europe-in-between’. An important generator of problems here has been the multi-ethnic composition of the population, a source of diffuse political processes often even giving rise to conflict. Border policies have served as indicators of the relationships pertaining between countries, though they have an even broader exponent relating EU policies and peacekeeping missions, among other things, and thus offering nothing less than a laboratory for geopolitics both old and new. In the three parts present here, the first represents a short theoretical discussion concerning national systems, while the second offers an empirical analysis of border changes and policies in the area stretching from Kaliningrad to the Bosphorus and Trieste. Finally, a third, synthetic, part discusses recent challenges to border policies in the area in question posed by processes of European integration, as set against the new security paradigms of our era. Particular emphasis is placed on strong immigration pressure, pan-Turkish strategic aspirations, the Balkan area and its policies and the relationship between the EU and Russia.

Keywords: border politics, border changes, Central and Eastern Europe, security, new geopolitics

Jernej Zupančič [jernej.zupancic@ff.uni-lj.si], Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana: Slovenia
Jan A. Wendt [jan.wendt@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Oceanografii i Geografii
Alexandru Ilieş [ilies@uoradea.ro], Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning University of Oradea Universitatii st., 410087, Oradea: Romania

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to analyze the trends and the dynamics of socio-economic development in the areas on both sides of all Russia’s land boundaries (more than 22,000 km long) using remote sensing data and GIS applications at different scales. The originality of this research is in the processing of large amounts of data (30 meters resolution images and medium-scale topographic maps) on vast areas and the construction of maps allowing analyzing the data on a new scale. The peripheral character of most border areas is a serious challenge for the development of cross-border cooperation. Depopulation and the depressed state of their economy do not stimulate contacts between neighboring territories. The authors assess the socio-economic situation on both sides of Russian borders and the contrasts between neighboring territories in the mirror of the structure and the dynamics of land use and the density of settlements and roads. The authors come to the conclusion that the border space experiences further fragmentation. The processes on the ‘new’ (post-Soviet) and ‘old’ borders differ by their speed and the character of transformations. Their asynchrony is quickly increasing the asymmetry of cross-border interactions.

Keywords: borders, remote sensing, spatial analysis, mapping, assessment, socio-economic development, Russia

Vladimir Kolosov [vladimirkolossov@gmail.com], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Andrei Medvedev [a.a.medvedeff@gmail.com], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Maria Zotova [zotovam@bk.ru], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia

Abstract

The work detailed in this article sought to determine the nature of the transborder cooperation ongoing in Poland’s eastern borderland, focusing in particular on the transborder network. Research encompassed analysis of the scope of cooperation in terms of subject matter and type of beneficiary, as well as analysis of the transborder cooperation network using SNA. All beneficiaries and projects pursued under the Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2007-2013 Cross-Border Cooperation Programme within the framework of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument were examined. Cooperation structures in the Polish-Ukrainian-Belarusian borderland area were then compared with those in the Polish-Czech and Polish-Slovak border areas. Results showed that, while the pursuit of common projects contributed to intensified connections in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian borderland area, the transborder cooperation is much influenced by the strong formalisation of the EU’s external border, and by formal-legal regulations in the neighbouring countries. The cooperation network in the eastern borderland of Poland thus differs greatly from those in the south.

Keywords: transborder network, cross-border cooperation, EU external border, Poland-Belarus-Ukraine borderland

Sylwia Dołzbłasz [sylwia.dolzblasz@ uwr.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Instytut Geografii i Rozwoju Regionalnego

Abstract

The geo-political transition in 1989-91 had long term consequences for the European integration process.The integration and regionalisation processes following the transition resulted in a transformation of territorial borders in and around the region; the functions of the borders changed. Mobility is vital for these processes.This paper is based on a longitudinal study of the development of air traffic from airports in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea Region, 2000-2012. The purpose of the paper is to discuss how the development of infrastructure and transport networks influence regionalisation processes in the Baltic Sea Region. Firstly, the impact of macro-economic development as a driver of internationalisation in the region is analysed, thereafter therelationship between institutional transition and regional system development. There are three periods of large increase in traffic from the Baltic States towards Western Europe, related to institutional change: rapidly after independence, as a result of the enlargement of the European Union, and related to the emergence of low-costaviation. Aviation from Minsk and Kaliningrad have also shown substantial increase in air traffic, but mainly to other parts of the former Soviet Union. There is thus little evidence of a regionalisation process involving the whole region.

Keywords: Geo-political change, borders, mobility, aviation, the Baltic Sea Region

Jan Henrik Nilsson [jan-henrik.nilsson@ism.lu.se], Department of Service Management and Service Studies Lund University Box 882, 25108 Helsingborg: Sweden

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to offer an answer to the question whether introducing local border traffic (LBT) on the external frontiers of the EU is an effective tool for cross-border integration and development of marginalised border areas. The analysis was carried out in an area of particular strategic importance for the European Community and Russia, which is the Polish-Russian borderland. The study includes the analysis of political discourse supplied with the findings from the original survey revealing mutual perception of Polish and Russian partners. The authors drew special attention to the significance of delimitation of areas included in the visa-free traffic. The success of the four-year period of LBT zone’s functioning on the Polish-Kaliningrad border came as a result of modification of the regulations concerning the scope of the zone and the inclusionof economic regions otherwise heavily affected by the split in the functional dimension. The analysed region had the chance to become a model of national and local policies’ cooperation in border areas. The decision to shut down the LBT has proved yet again that socio-economic initiatives in border regions are deterministically dependent on the decisions of central governments.

Keywords: local border traffic, cross-border integration, Polish-Russian border, external border of the European Union

Iwona Sagan [iwona.sagan@ug.edu.pl], Department of Economic Geography, Faculty of Oceanography and Geography University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland
Vladimir Kolosov [vladimirkolossov@gmail.com], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Dominika Studzińska [geods@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Nauk Społecznych
Maria Zotova [zotovam@bk.ru], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Alexander Sebentsov [sebentsov@gmail.com], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Klaudia Nowicka [geokn@univ.gda.pl], University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland

Abstract

The purpose of the following paper is to debate the cross-border shopping tourism activities taking place at the external borders of the European Union in Poland and Romania. The work focuses on a comparative analyses of three borders from Poland and three borders from Romania. They had a similar history, underwent a period of political and economic transformation and both countries joined the EU in a short space of time. The research is composed from a theoretical and empirical approach. The theoretical research results show similarities in the evolutions of cross-border shopping tourism activities from both countries. The empirical research updates the situation of cross-border shopping tourism activities. The results show a different evolution of this kind of tourism activities, which has been more predominant at the Polish borders than at the Romanian border, mainly motivated by the stronger market differences existing between Poland and its neighbours, than between Romania and its neighbours. The economic motivators are still strong with a focus of customers on better price benefits and discount opportunities. The leisure elements, although not predominant are present, mainly in Poland, the customers being mainly motivated by the pleasure emerged from the shopping activity. In terms of shopping, the dominant role is played by the shopping, in their old forms (bazaar, local market or a transformed department stores) or their new forms (commercial centres or malls), increasingly incorporating also elements of leisure.

Keywords: cross-border shopping, Romania, Poland, border, development, trading, tourism, external border of the European Union

Delia Bar-Kołelis [deliabar@kolelis.com], Institute of Geography, Faculty of Oceanography and Geography University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland
Jan A. Wendt [jan.wendt@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Oceanografii i Geografii

Abstract

In Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, many protected areas are situated in the borderlands. Borders (e.g. between states), boundaries (of protected areas), and frontiers (e.g. an eco-frontier) are produced by humans and underline control and ownership of land (territory). These borderlines overlap with each another – can be visible or not, and function as barriers to the flows and economic activity of human beings, with their juridical consequences. In this paper the focus has been placed on the role of that borders play in the construction of space, especially in relation to attractive natural areas in the borderlands of Poland, whether or not they are protected. Additionally the author proposes and tries to illustrate the role of the ‘periodisation’ of nature protection in the borderlands and the relationship between them.

Keywords: Poland, border, national park, transboundary cooperation, protected area, eco-frontier

Marek Więckowski [marekw@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN