A Survey of Border Management Policies and Methodologies, and Their Role in Border Security with an Emphasis Iranian Eastern Borders (Khorasan Razavi province - Afghanistan)

جغرافیاوتوسعه ناحیه ای

Article 3, Volume 11, Issue 1 - Serial Number 20, September 2013   

Document Type: scientific-research article

DOI: 10.22067/geography.v11i20.30708

Authors

Seyed Hadi Zarghani^* ; Hadi A’zami; Amin Lotfi

Abstract

Extended abstract
1- Introduction
Controlling and supervising borders is one of the most significant issues concerning international borders, especially in unstable and unsafe regions. Appropriate supervision and imposing control on borders has attracted government attention throughout history, due to its important role in national security (Glassner 2004: 80); The Great Wall of China, Hadrian's wall, and Golestan's wall, etc, provide some evidence corroborating this claim. Different types of electronic devices are currently used alongside more traditional methods, for this purpose in the present time. Nevertheless, in some parts of the world, imposing optimal control over the borders is still a challenging issue for the governments, who are constantly looking for more effective and better methodologies (Lotfi 2011: 77). After China, Iran and the Russian federation have the largest number of neighboring countries in the world. On the other hand, Iran's borders lie within ten major physiographic regions, including mountains, foothills, deserts, swamplands, lagoons, rivers, forests, steppes, lakes, and seas (Karimipour, 2000: 22). Such geographical features and having numerous neighboring countries has provided a special situation for Iran. Obviously, strategic or military control of these long border lines is extremely difficult. Based on this fact, numerous plans, policies, and methodologies have been used by different responsible organizations to manage and control borders within recent years. It seems necessary to evaluate the level of their effectiveness on border security.
2- Research method
The present research can be described as descriptive and analytical in nature. Gathering the needed information has been done through library research and field research methods (questionnaires and interviewing authorities). The questions included in this study were as follows:
1- How effective do you describe the physical devices which are being used to control and supervise Iran's eastern border (Khorasan Razavi province-Afghanistan) on making that border impenetrable?
2- How effective do you describe the electronic devices which are being used to control and supervise Iran's eastern border (Khorasan Razavi province-Afghanistan) on making that border impenetrable?
3- How effective do you describe the plans (frontage defining policies, evacuating border villages, setting up border markets, defining forbidden border areas) which are being used to control and supervise Iran's eastern border (Khorasan Razavi province-Afghanistan) on making that border impenetrable?
3- Arguments and conclusion
Numerous factors can threaten the national security of a country on borders, including border disputes and military invasion, having long border lines and enemy penetration through borders, the existence of similar languages, tribal values, and religions on both sides of the border and their anti-national activities, smuggling, especially drugs, human trafficking, border crimes, etc. As a result, different countries in the world have adopted different approaches to maintaining their border security, considering the existing threats to their borders with the neighboring countries.
Different threatening factors are causing disturbances in Iran's eastern borders, especially where this survey focuses on (Khorasan Razavi province - Afghanistan), and this has attracted more attention toward this region. Based on these facts, Iran's government and involved organizations are employing three methods to impose control on the border lines, these three methods include 1) physical approaches 2) electronic approaches 3) plans and policies for controlling the border lines (defining a frontage, setting forbidden areas, etc). This survey has studied every single one of these approaches. The results indicate that the management policies and methods have had an influential role in making the borders impenetrable, along the borders with Afghanistan. In more precise words, electronic supervision, physical supervision, and controlling plans have respectively played the most effective roles in making Iran's eastern borders impenetrable.

Keywords

International boundary; Border Securities; Border control; Khorasan Razavi; Afghanistan