The document summarizes several historical and modern border walls around the world, including their purposes, construction details, and geopolitical contexts. Some of the walls discussed include the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, the US-Mexico border wall, the West Bank separation barrier, and borders between India/Pakistan, Morocco/Western Sahara, and Spain/Morocco. Borders serve various purposes from defense to restricting migration and trade, but can also divide communities and be sites of conflict.

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3. Why?
Built to protect from perceived military, economic, social or cultural threats,
border walls represent geographic national and territorial boundaries.
As they cut across and wind their way over the land, these walls trace the symbolic
lines that exist between customs, values and beliefs adopted by people of
particular regions.
However, in many cases the lines do not differentiate, dividing whole communities
and cultural groups in the process.
The construction of a wall makes tangible the very abstract notion of sovereignty,
particularly for those caught living on the border….

4. Pre-modern State Walls
These walls were built on the boundaries of pre-modern states with centralized governments.
They defined the geographic reach of imperial territories against lands occupied by
decentralized tribes.
This differs from our understanding of state boundaries in the modern world in which most of
the entire globe lies within the territories of one state or another.

5. BuildingBegun: 7th Century BC,continued
over several centuries, primarilyduring the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Construction:Stone,brick, tampedearth,
woodandothermaterials
Totaldistance:approx.13,171 miles
Over the time of the Great Wall's
construction, the state we recognize
today as China was surrounded by
marauding nomadictribes.
The Great Wall protectedthe people and
resourcesof the state from invasionby
these tribes while regulating trade and
immigration.

8. Demilitarized Borders:
Demilitarized borders exist between states that no longer
view one another as a threat.
Both countries have since withdrawn military presence
and activity from their shared boundary.

9. Maginot Line
Building Begun: 1930
Construction:Concrete,tankobstacles,artillerycasemates,machine gunposts
TotalDistance:approx.240miles (estimatesvarygreatly)
Named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, France constructed this permanent
system of fortifications along the German and Italian borders in the run-up to World War II.
The wall was mostly demilitarized after 1966.
Many of the original fortifications have since been converted for other uses, including several
wine cellars, a mushroom farm and a disco

10. The Maginot Line was built to fulfill several
purposes:
To avoid a surprise attack and to give the alarm
To cover the mobilisation of the French Army
(which took between two and three weeks)
To save manpower (France counted 39,000,000
inhabitants, Germany 70,000,000)
To protect Alsace and Lorraine (returned to
France in 1918) and their industrial basin
To be used as a basis for a counter-offensive
To push the enemy to circumvent it while passing
by Switzerland or Belgium
To hold the enemy while the main army could be
brought up to reinforce the line
To show non-aggressive posture, and compel the
British to help France if Germany invaded Belgium
To push Belgium into the war, by leaving it open
to an attack from Germany

11. The Demilitarized
Zone between
North and South
Vietnam,
March, 1968,
looking west toward
Laos.

12. The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
To this day, South Korea and North Korea do not recognize each other as sovereign nations.
In fact the two Koreas are officially still at war.
And often they act like it, keeping tensions sharp as a blade throughout the peninsula and especially
along the DMZ.

13. Berlin Wall
Building Began: 1961
Construction: Concrete reinforced with mesh fencing, signal fencing,
anti-vehicle trenches, barbedwire,dogson long lines, "beds of
nails", over 116 watchtowers, and20 bunkers
Total Distance: approx.96 miles
The Berlin Wall, officially referred to by the
German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the "Anti-
Fascist Protection Rampart," was constructed to
protect the East German population from
perceived fascist elements conspiring to prevent a
new socialist state.
On November 9, 1989,
after several weeks of increasing civil unrest, the
East German government announced that all GDR
citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin.
Over the months that followed, citizens from both
sides began to dismantle the wall piece by piece.
Today only a small section remains as a historical
marker.

14. Fall of Berlin Wall

15. Modern Nation-to-Nation Walls
Nation-to-nation barriers are those that were constructed on
the national boundary of two or more present day countries
and are ongoing sources of conflict.
Walls are extraordinary statements of purpose. They create
a physical line in the sand demarcating those on the inside
and those who are firmly on the outside.
If we look at it from another perspective, the world is
witnessing one of the greatest migrations in human history.
From economic migrants to political refugees, people are
flooding across borders in unprecedented numbers. …

16. U.S. - Mexico Border Wall
BuildingBegan:2006
Construction:Steelandconcrete(doublefencein
somesections)
TotalDistance:approx.640miles(construction
suspended)
In an attempt to quell the world's highest rate of
illegal border crossing, increases in drug and
weapons trafficking, and related violence,
President George W. Bush ordered the
construction of several strategically placed
sections of wall along the U.S/Mexico
international border. In 2010, President Barack
Obama halted construction and reallocated all
funding towards researching and upgrading
border technology. The state of Arizona has
vowed to continue construction of its portion of
the fence through private online donations

17. Botswana-Zimbabwe Border
Building Began: 2003
Construction: Electric fence
Total Distance: approx. 300 miles
The official reason Botswana began
building a fence along its western
border with Zimbabwe is
purportedly to stop the spread of
foot-and-mouth disease among
livestock.
However, Zimbabweans believe
that it is really intended to keep
people from migrating into
Botswana since the 2000 land
reform policy in Zimbabwe resulted
in an economic crisis, leaving many
desperate and in search of
employment.

18. Indo-Bangladeshi Barrier
Building Began: 2005
Construction: Barbed wire and concrete
Total Distance (Goal): I2,116 miles
India is constructing a barrier to prevent illegal immigration and the
smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Bangladesh to the Indian state of
Assam. In recent years, it has been a site of particular focus for Human
Rights Watch (HRW) because of the border patrol's controversial shoot on
sight policy.
HRW reported in 2010 that over 900 Bengladeshi, including children, had
been killed by both sides along the border in the last decade alone.

19. Kuwait-Iraq Barrier
Building Began: 1991
Construction: Electrified fencing, concertina wire, trenches and dirt berms
Total Distance: approx. 120 miles
After the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, international military intervention and the defeat of
Iraq, the Kuwait-Iraq barrier was constructed by the United Nations Security Council to
prevent future invasion by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The separation barrier extends six miles into Iraq, three miles into Kuwait, across the full
length of their mutual border from Saudi Arabia to the Persian Gulf and is guarded by
hundreds of soldiers, several patrol boats, and helicopters.

20. In July 2010,
the Iranian Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad-
Najjar announced that the country would be building
walls along its entire border with
The government has purportedly allocated 150
million dollars for this purpose.

21. Pakistan-Iran Barrier
Building Began: 2007
Construction: Reinforced concrete, earth and stone
embankments, deep ditches, observation towers and
garrisons
Total Distance: approx. 435 miles
The Iran-Pakistan barrier is a separation
barrier which Iran in the process of
reconstructing and fortifying along its
border with Pakistan. The Pakistani
Foreign Ministry has said that Iran has
the right to erect border fencing in its
territory to deter drug smuggling and
illegal crossings. However, the Provincial
Assembly of Balochistan (Pakistan)
opposes the wall. They maintain that it
will create problems for the Baloch
people, whose lands straddle the border
region, dividing them politically and
impeding trade and social activities.

22. Iran-Iraq Barrier
Building Began: 2007
Construction: Concrete and electric wire
Total Distance: approximately 3 miles
The Iranian government has built a long wall on its border with Iraq to stop
drug and weapons smuggling. However, according to Iraqis and Iranians living
near the border, the wall has created employment problems for the Iraqis. It is
also reported that Iran has issued IDs to Iranian smugglers to regulate their
activities.

23. Green line and territory walls
refer
to those that separate
nations from occupied
territories or lands that are
claimed by one and disputed
by another…

24. West Bank Separation Barrier
Building Began: 2002
Construction: fences, barbed wire, ditches
and concrete slabs up to 26ft high sensors,
sand (to help identify footprints), patrol
roads and buffer zones up to 200 feet
wide
Total Distance: approx. 436 miles
The Israeli-built barrier along the West Bank is
primarily located within Palestinian lands. Only
15% of the barrier follows the so-called "Green
Line", the internationally recognized border.
Israel built the "security fence" as a military
measure in the conflict with Palestinians. In
2004, the International Court of Justice in The
Hague deemed the barrier was illegal.
Palestinians view it as an "apartheid wall"
which threatens their human rights, and believe
that its true aim is to expand Israeli territory.
Israel has also constructed fencing along its
borders with Lebanon and Gaza, and is going
ahead with plans to complete barriers at its
boundaries with Egypt, Syria and part of Jordan.

25. Indian Line of Control Fencing
Building Began: 1990s
Construction: Double-row of electrified
fencing and concertina wire 8-12 feet high,
landmines, and surveillance systems
Total Distance: 340 miles along the 460 mile disputed
border
The Line of Control (LoC) established in 1972 separates
the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan's
Azad Kashmir--all of which were once part of the "five
Northern states of India" that both countries would like
to claim as their own.
The fence, constructed by India, is situated 150 yards
inside Indian-controlled territory. Its stated purpose is
to exclude arms smuggling and infiltration by
Pakistani-based separatist militants.

26. The Berm (Moroccan Wall)
Building Began: 1980
Construction: 10 foot high sand walls, landmines
Total Distance: at least 1,550 miles long
The Moroccan Wall, or The Berm,
divides the entire area of Western Sahara. Morocco built
the wall in response to Polisario efforts to establish
Western Sahara's independence.
The wall initially contained just a small northwestern part
of the territory, but by building a succession of six different
walls, the Moroccans expanded their occupation to the
majority of the contested land.

27. Ceuta and Melilla Borders
(Spain-Morocco)
Building Began: circa 2000
Construction: three rows of high wire
barricades ranging 10 - 20 feet high
Total Distance: approximately 6 miles total
(surrounding both cities)
Ceuta and Melilla are free port cities on
the northern tip of Africa under Spanish
control since 1986.
Both cities are surrounded by Morocco,
which disputes Spanish sovereignty over
them.
Spain built the fences to deter Africans
from migrating to Iberia through these
ports.
In 2005, fifteen people were killed trying
to cross over the barrier.
Still many try to make it over, some
getting caught in the process or
drowning while attempting to make the
sea crossing.
Human trafficking is common.