ABSTRACT
The collapse of the socialist systems of Eastern, Central and Southern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, accompanied by the formation of new nation-states in the territories of former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, has resulted in a hardening of the once-soft lines separating bordering nations. The hardening is an outcome of the efforts of the individual states to protect their national territories. In the process, mutual cooperation and help across the formerly soft borderlines have been replaced by competitiveness between the bordering states. The simultaneousness of the integration of traditional states and the creation of new ones calls attention to the complexity of strategies of cooperation and separation, for these strategies not only reflect economic, but also political, cultural, and historical themes. Complementarity between conflict and co-operation among the neighboring states introduces specific dynamics into borderlands, stimulates or handicaps exchange, and enriches or impedes local life on both sides of a border.
