ABSTRACT
There is as yet very little general or theoretical writing on land-locked states: the variety and apparent uniqueness of each case seems to inhibit any general analysis of the land-locked state phenomenon, or what may perhaps be termed land-lockedness. Only in the case of Africa has there as yet been any attempt at regional or continental analysis and that was over twenty years ago. For the most part the material, though increasingly voluminous, is scattered widely and mainly involves descriptive and analytical studies of individual land-locked states. The present volume adds significantly to this literature with a number of important new case studies, including a study of five new land-locked states in Central Asia, and attempts to make a wider analysis of the problems generated by land-lockedness for the land-locked states of Africa and Asia. This decade has witnessed a surge in the number of landlocked states in the world – now well over forty – and it seems reasonable to suggest that it is an appropriate time for more general and theoretical writing and research to be directed at the phenomenon of land-lockedness.
