ABSTRACT
The world political map might well be likened to a giant mosaic depicting the world's geopolitical structure, with each of the individual pieces representing a separate State and the lines of mortar dividing them representing international boundaries. Boundaries are essential to the administration of the State power and territorial control that is vested in a national government. Bounding of States with finite lines often leads to disputes over the location of the boundary. Only the territorial sea limit marks the edge of a State's full sovereign powers, subject only to provisions of innocent passage of all foreign vessels. After the Second World War, a trend developed in Europe, Africa, and Asia toward the preservation of existing international boundaries. Republic boundaries in the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, and the former Czechoslovakia, and the provincial boundary between Eritrea and the rest of Ethiopia before 1993, became international boundaries when the internal administrative units attained independence.
