Forget Maps

In the Washington Post's Outlook section today, Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím writes that it is time to rethink our traditional notions about borders. Technological and economic innovations, as well as illicit activities, have rendered geographic borders far less important.   Governments and citizens are used to thinking of a border as a real, physical ...

In the Washington Post's Outlook section today, Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím writes that it is time to rethink our traditional notions about borders. Technological and economic innovations, as well as illicit activities, have rendered geographic borders far less important.

In the Washington Post's Outlook section today, Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím writes that it is time to rethink our traditional notions about borders. Technological and economic innovations, as well as illicit activities, have rendered geographic borders far less important.

 

Governments and citizens are used to thinking of a border as a real, physical place: a fence, a shoreline, a desert or a mountain pass. But while geography still matters, today's borders are being redefined and redrawn in unexpected ways. They are fluid, constantly remade by technology, new laws and institutions, and the realities of international commerce — illicit as well as legitimate. They are also increasingly intangible, living in a virtual and electronic space.

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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