The world is rife with borders. Borders between states, nations, regions, continents, hemispheres. Land formations like mountains, rivers, and valleys partition land around the world, and lakes, seas, and oceans carve land masses into territories. Yet the borders that get the most attention are usually dangerous international borders, which are often hotspots of violence, migration, and military activity. Some are even dead man zones created out of necessity on account of regional conflict, such as Russia's annexation of Crimea, or ideological proxy wars such as the one that carved Korea in half.
Contested international borders around the world, and the striking photos thereof, tend to to be contained to historically conflicted regions, such as the Middle East and Africa, both of which still suffer the consequences of colonialism and foreign intervention, and east Asia, where the collapse of dynasties and empires and the advent of nation states and the great schism between communism and capitalist democracy engendered generations of conflict and border disputes. Israel, for instance, appears quite a bit.Â
Scroll on for striking photos of dangerous and contested international borders, which reveal a great deal about the conflicts and tension from which they arose. Bear in mind some of these photos warn of potential danger based on ideological or historical tension - the Indian sign leading into China, for instance, is more a "keep your eyes peeled, you never know with these guys" than a "THEY'RE GOING TO KILL YOU."
