Borderland Geopolitics: The unsettledness of European borders

This chapter examines the concept of borderland geopolitics. It argues that geopolitics plays a reciprocal role as a prominent phenomenon that shapes – and is shaped by – borders and borderlands. To support this argument, this chapter develops the notion of the ‘weight of history’, which sheds light on how history can be instrumentally used to revive historical grievances to serve geopolitical purposes. In turn, such instrumentalization decidedly contributes to the unsettledness of borders. It illustrates the analysis by focusing on Europe, a (sub)continent that is, and has been, fertile ground for borderland geopolitics. Finally, through a taxonomy of territorial disputes in borderlands, this chapter contends that the weight of history has tangible consequences, or reverberations, in contemporary geopolitics.