ABSTRACT
An important starting point of the present volume is how the role of borders in the international system has changed since the end of the Cold War. In the past, a border was closely connected to state sovereignty and security in the traditional, often military sense of these concepts. After the Cold War, it is possible to talk about the harmonization of the international system. De mocratization and the development of market economies are the current major processes in the former socialist bloc as well as in the developing world.
