Borders

"Borders" here means more than state frontiers. It covers social, economic and cultural boundaries too — and the challenges can come from hard borders or from their absence: capital that moves freely while labour does not, goods that cross where people cannot.

Migration, land rights and trafficking usually sit here.

Where to look

• Scotland's 2014 independence referendum — how the prospect of a new border shaped the campaign on both sides.
• The USA–Mexico border — operations, and the law changing around them.
• The Botswana Bushmen land conflict — state authority against a way of life.
• Youth migration within the EU — national rules against regional ones.
• Gender boundaries in Egypt — religion and women's rights as a border of a different kind.

Concepts this challenge pulls on

Sovereignty above all — a border is where sovereignty is asserted and where it is tested. Then legitimacy (who accepts the line, and who does not) and interdependence (borders that are open to some flows and closed to others).

Connections worth making

Identity — borders create insiders and outsiders, which is an identity claim before it is a legal one. Security — border control is almost always justified in security language. Poverty — who can cross is often decided by what they earn.