<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is judged to be the last border of the Cold War. Although no peace treaty has been signed after the Korean War, astounding changes in the South-North relations could be observed between the late 1990s and 2010. Although severe provocations of the North finally led to a new stop of a further rapprochement, the unexpected reconciliation process started in 2000 by South Korea not only led to a temporary detente, but also showed spatially manifested results. Two Special Economic Zones, one dedicated to tourism and the other to industrial production, had been established in the DPRK near the DMZ. What is the appropriate interpretation of those diffident cross-border activities which lasted for almost a decade? Were these SEZs really first successful attempts at feasible Korean cross-border cooperation? Summing up all knowledge on North-Korean SEZ policy and the general state doctrine, it seems that real cross-border cooperation could not be an option for the DPRK's current leadership, either before or after South-Korea's adoption of Sunshine Policy.</abstract>

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Along the Korean Demilitarised Zone: A Feasible Pathway Towards An Accessible North Korea?

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The European Union is becoming one undivided continent where territories are faced with borderless economic, social and environmental challenges while still being governed within traditional institutional boundaries. Integration raises the question of cohesion among different territories, and territorial cohesion is a new objective for the Union according to the Lisbon Treaty. Cooperation between territories, beyond frontiers and across different institutional layers, is becoming crucial for providing multi-level governance to new functional regions. The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), a new legal and governance tool established by Regulation 1082/2006, was conceived as a substantial upgrade for this multi-level governance and beyond-the-border cooperation. Four years after its adoption, a number of EGTCs have been set up, and new ones are in the pipeline. Recently the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions have launched a consultation with the aim to review the existing legislation since 2007 on the EGTC and adjust it if necessary. The results are to be presented this year in Brussels during the 8th edition of the Open Days.The article first highlights the EGTC framework in support of integration at a regional level and shows the background of the regulation. It then focuses on the legal issues involved, such as legal personality, potential members, tasks, organisation, state control, and liability of an EGTC. After showing the implementation status of a national EGTC, the article closes with further steps to be taken.</abstract>

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC): A New Tool Facilitating Cross-Border Cooperation and Governance

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The declining importance of national policies and the economic level as a result of globalisation as well as European integration processes compels cities to become actors on the international stage and to define their own ‘foreign policies’, which may include the establishment of transnational alliances, networks, and cooperation territories. This will be discussed using Poznań as a case study. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the city had to integrate into traditional forms of international cooperation as well as new forms of transnational networking. Concerning the latter, the biggest challenge is the integration of Poznań into the strategic network of the Oder Partnership, which aims at creating a Polish-German cooperation space able to compete with other European regions.</abstract>

Re-Dimensioning the Polish-German Border Area: Poznań as a City in a Transnational Cooperation Space

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The aim of the article is to present cross-border cooperation on security. For this purpose, various problems in the European Union with respect to criminal policy must be described. The article consists of three parts. The first presents selected European institutions established to prevent and fight crime. The second concentrates on the control of external EU borders, quoting people's opinions on this matter and describing one of the EU programmes, the European Neighbourhood &amp; Partnership Instrument: Cross-Border Cooperation. The third part focuses on security of the Polish borders as those which in recent years have witnessed serious political changes - Poland's accession to the European Union and the Schengen zone. The paper finishes with conclusions.</abstract>

Cross-Border Cooperation on Security in Europe

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article concentrates on institutionalised border protection as a special indication of border areas that are demarcated by the existence and operations of specific authorities. This kind of border protection with its control and monitoring measures serves different purposes, including crime fighting and protection against threats, fiscal aspects (customs), migration control, traffic safety, and environment protection. Furthermore, it is an expression of state sovereignty. In this way borders and border areas can be experienced and perceived, which the article suggests can have different dimensions: a cognitive, an affective, a visual-haptic, and an aesthetic one. Under the Schengen Agreement, systematic border control between the participating states has been removed. This implies, not the end of border protection, but perhaps a loss of a manifestation and perceptibility of borders and border areas.</abstract>

Perceptibility and Experience of Inner-European Borders by Institutionalised Border Protection

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Transborder co-operation is shaped by many factors and thus takes various forms on particular bor-ders. Within the same formal-legal arrangements under Interreg Programmes, the greatest role in the diver-sification of co-operation was played by non-system-related conditions specific to particular border regions. To identify what specifically drives co-operation, the nature of Polish-German and Polish-Czech transborder co-operation was compared. On the basis of the research conducted, it can be said that the existence of similar conditions on both sides of the border may define specific directions of co-operation and hence be called an inte-grating factor. Coupled with relatively weak barriers, this integrating factor may exert a powerful influence on the development and character of transborder co-operation. Thus, in the process of shaping co-operation policy it is crucial to identify the existing integrating factor (or to define the possibilities of creating it) and to limit the impact of co-operation barriers.</abstract>

The Role of the Integrating Factor in the Shaping of Transborder Co-Operation: The Case of Poland

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The need for borders seems an old-fashioned notion, especially when we consider the border in its most basic sense: as a barrier and a filter. Within the European Union, the idea of the disappearing border is underlined when we see its physical signs such as buildings and checkpoints fall out of use or disappear. We submit here that due to the complex interplay between supra-national, national and local structures today, the notion of the border has instead evolved and become less visible, but very present, and very complex.When we examine the particular case of the asylum seeker in Strasbourg, France, we see that even in this ‘borderless’ city administrative mechanisms keep him ‘out’, even when he is physically in our midst, by creating ‘non-spaces’, or by manipulating his use of time and everyday spaces so that he cannot anchor himself.</abstract>

New Borders and New Spaces: The Case of Theasylum Seeker in Strasbourg, France

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Thanks to the opening of Europe to Kaliningrad and Kaliningrad to Europe, this region has been given an opportunity to gradually break the isolation which was the primary reason for its peripheral position. The enlargement of the Schengen Area complicated its relations and weakened cross-border cooperation with Poland. Further cross-border cooperation trends, though facing various barriers, may lead to improving the state of the natural environment in the Polish-Russian transborder region, joint planning of its development, growing mutual contacts, and making the populations living on both sides of the border more familiar with each other.Kaliningrad's future also requires sustainable economic, ecological, social and political development. The working out of new principles of model cooperation between the EU and Russia may significantly stimulate the economy in the Polish-Russian cross-border areas. The mainstream options for opening Kaliningrad to regional cooperation can be an important step towards full integration of Baltic Europe.</abstract>

Problems of Cross-Border Cooperation Between Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article focuses on the European Green Belt (EGB), which refers to efforts to create a network of conservation areas along the borderline that used to divide Europe into the socialist and capitalist blocks. The EGB initiative attempts to link ecologically valuable areas as continuous ecological networks that cross the entire continent. The EGB is divided into three sub-regions: the Fennoscandian and Baltic Green Belt in the North and along the coastline of the Baltic Sea, the Central European Green Belt, and the South-Eastern European Green Belt. The EGB network is studied as a form of environmental governance, and its formation and furtherance are linked with the environmental governance discussion. In addition, the article aims to show that EGB governance is changing the meaning of the former Iron Curtain borders. The borders have been transnationalised since they have become parts of international networks seeking to develop borderless ecological zones. However, the EGB process maintains and reproduces the borders, as the process itself depends on the availability of suitable border areas.</abstract>

The European Green Belt: Generating Environmental Governance - Reshaping Border Areas

Borders, Transborder Relations and Governance. Introduction

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Quaestiones Geographicae

Quaestiones Geographicae was established in 1974 as an annual journal of the Institute of Geography, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Its founder and first editor was Professor Stefan Kozarski. Initially the scope of the journal covered issues in both physical and socio-economic geography; since 1982, exclusively physical geography. In 2006 there appeared the idea of a return to the original conception of the journal, although in a somewhat modified organisational form.  Quaestiones Geographicae publishes research results of wide interest in the following fields:  physical geography,  economic and human geography,  spatial management and planning,  sustainable development (including regional and local development),  environmental science,  GIS and geoinformation, and  tourism and recreation.   Why subscribe and read   premier source of high quality geographical research;  source of the latest news, achievements and research inspirations from full scope of physical and human geography;  international forum for the dissemination of research data from various areas of geography;  designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas between researchers from different countries;  excellent articles authored by researchers from all over the world, who appreciate our fast, fair and constructive peer review provided by experts in all fields of geography;   Why submit   transparent, comprehensive and fast peer review,  language assistance for authors from non-English speaking regions,  efficient route to fast-track publication.  Open Access License  Quaestiones Geographicae is an open access journal published online, it means all papers are immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. All papers are published under the license CC-BY. For more information please visit Open Access License.   Rejection Rate   30-40%  Journal Metrics   JCI = 0.45  Cite Score = 2.5  SJR = 0.356  SNIP = 0.834  MEiN score (PL) = 100 points   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 