On Africa’s “arbitrary” borders and their alleged impacts
Borders are not the leading cause of state weakness or political and economic underdevelopment in Africa
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I: All borders are arbitrary
All borders are artificial, and arbitrarily reflect the limits of technological know-how, relative military strength and appetite for total war, prevailing ideas about what makes a normatively effective moral community, and the depths of human imagination. A river is a natural border until you encounter a fascinating technology called a bridge. Mountains, too, seem like natural borders until tunnels and airplanes become a possibility. With regard to human geography, ethnicity-based boundaries may seem like natural borders until you realize that people can learn new languages, assimilate into new cultures, invent traditions whole clothe, and in so doing accumulate new layers of identi…