The notion of frontier presents a polysemic content, since its meaning varies according to the field in which this content is produced and as a consequence of the most different theoretical-methodological lines that are adopted by the scholars. For historians, boundaries are usually understood in their traditional sense of political boundaries, as well as in the sense of locating the encounter of different cultures. In the current socioeconomic scenario resulting from globalization, the borders reveal a porous and complex world, marked by relationships that are fed by a set of factors beyond the economic-financial.
Population flows multiply; the regions become more mobile and the borders more sliding, making them more multicultural and interconnected, making appear the racial, cultural, religious, economic and historical differences.
In the process of their formations, the frontiers denote particular historical, geopolitical, cultural and way of life issues. As phenomena, boundaries represent units charged with meanings referred to by geography and the imaginary of cultures. In the political field, frontiers appear in national history as vulnerable areas, being a source of constant concern, a place where the question of sovereignty is indispensable. With the emergence of the modern state, the frontier was conceived as a matter of national security, since it came to mean a guarantee of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
From the frontier, the state came to have control over its territory, which is governed by internal laws and at the same time began to control the entry and exit of its territory. Thus, historically, the border was linked to the formation of the State and the Nation and the conquest of new territories, ended up separating peoples.
Consequently, the frontier generated conflict, war, enmities. With the dossier Region and Borders and the journal History: debates and trends intends to contribute to the historiographic debate, showing the different facets that this theme can present. Opening the dossier, Deborah Paci shows how the end of the Cold War opened up new possibilities for cooperation between the islands of the Baltic region.
