Borderology: Cross-disciplinary Insights from the Border Zone

Book excerpt: This book provides a unique and multifaceted view on and understanding of borders and their manifestations: physical and mental, cultural and geographical, and as a question of life and death. It highlights the Green Belt along the Iron Curtain, which offered a haven for rare species for many decades and, after the Cold War, became a veritable treasure trove for a European network of researchers. A geographical border is something that can be seen, but other borders sometimes have to be crossed to be discovered. The border zone is an arena for development that is not found in any other places. This book focuses on borderology, which became the name of a cross-border study and research program that explores the border zone from multiple perspectives. This cross-disciplinary book will appeal to interested researchers and students from many fields, from philosophy and diplomacy to ecology and geography.