ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides the important conceptual area dealing with environmental-political relationships. It suggests that a more functional stress in boundary studies has produced methods of measuring barrier effects of lines separating political systems. The part discusses role of national images in international integration and conflict. It also suggests that symbolization is one of the processes by which political goals are impressed upon the landscape. The part examines disintegrative forces in the relationships among units, and between units and the central authority, in a federation. It shows that the major problems involved; the actual definition of the affected zone, the distinction to be drawn between studies of the impact of boundary change and other boundary studies and the need for a clear "before" picture with some temporal depth.
