A Critical Approach to the Concept of Artificial Borders: A Central Asian Case Study
Central Asia has been divided among five States since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These complex borders suddenly went from the status of interior limits to that of international boundaries. Some authors have little hesitation using the term “artificial boundary”. This concept however is debatable and overly minimizing, to the same extent as the concept of “natural boundaries”: both reflect very ideological representations of the borders they are used to describe. Moreover, the history of boundary making underlines the approaches used by Soviet officials when they carved up the region: it reveals criteria that certainly do not make Central Asian boundaries ontologically different from borders elsewhere in the world. There is little doubt that newly independent States inherited complex limits, but the issue of their peaceful management has more to do with political goals and the objectives of local governments than to the reportedly artificial nature of State boundaries.