ABSTRACT
An examination of international boundaries on the current world political map reveals both stability and dynamism. Stable boundaries appear where the states have signed and honoured treaties recognis ing their sovereignty and agreed on the delimitation and demarcation of common borders. Some of these boundaries, for example, those separating some southern and western European states have been intact for centures and there is little likelihood of change. Most South and Central American international boundaries have been stable for much of this century. Elsewhere the interstate boundaries represent places of recent conflict. Examples were in Western and Eastern Europe during the First World War and the Second World War and during the 1980s along boundaries separating Nicaragua and Honduras, Thailand and Vietnam, Vietnam and Kampuchea, Chad and Libya, and Namibia and Angola (van der Wusten, 1985). There are also contemporary boundary situations where the potential for protracted aggressive military actions might surface were it not for third parties currently separating military forces of member states. Examples include Lebanon-Israel, the Turkish and Greek popula tions on Cyprus, Iran-Iraq, and India-Pakistan in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is along these boundaries that United Nations peacekeeping forces are stationed. These forces are comprised of infantry, commanders and units from the international community of states who are provided with equipment and supplies from many UN members. The primary purposes of these forces are to prevent conflict and contact between the warring states, to monitor truces, and to promote a political climate where a peaceful and enduring resolution to the conflict may be possible.
