Can National Register Site Boundaries Be Expanded?

A Russian flag blows outside the entrance of Crimea'southward parliament edifice in Simferopol on Thursday. Crimeans vote Sun on whether they want to join Russia, though the international community says it will not recognize the ballot. Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images hide explanation

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Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

A Russian flag blows outside the archway of Crimea's parliament building in Simferopol on Thursday. Crimeans vote Sunday on whether they want to join Russia, though the international community says it will not recognize the ballot.

Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

Redrawing national borders may experience like a historical relic that belongs to an earlier century, still Crimea's crisis shows at that place are nonetheless places that don't fit neatly on the map — and may not for years to come.

Merely last month, Crimea was part of Ukraine. On Sunday, Crimeans vote on whether they desire to become part of Russian federation. Nevermind that the balance of the world rejects the validity of the ballot; no country appears willing or able to preclude Crimea from leaving Ukraine and joining Russia.

This strikes many as a unsafe development on a continent that's had its borders erased and reconstituted endless times.

"This is the first time since 1945 when a cracking power has inverse, or is well-nigh to change, Europe's borders past force," Josef Joffe, editor of the High german newspaper Die Zeit, told NPR's Forenoon Edition.

"Information technology is a very serious test of wills which will decide whether Europe lives past the rules information technology has written the concluding 70 years or whether we're going back into the kind of 19th and 18th century," he added.

Borders do occasionally shift in the mod world, just the circumstances vary and the rules are fuzzy. In general, the international community rejects the use of creature forcefulness and accepts revised boundaries that are mutually agreed upon.

Just often the cases autumn somewhere in between and can drag on unresolved for decades. Here'due south a short list:

A member of the Crimean Tatar community holds the Ukrainian flag during a rally in front end of a Ukrainian military machine base s of Simferopol, on Th. Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images hide explanation

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Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images

A member of the Crimean Tatar community holds the Ukrainian flag during a rally in front of a Ukrainian military base southward of Simferopol, on Thursday.

Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images

Breakaway Territories

If a small, plucky territory is trying to cut itself loose from a larger power that'south viewed as oppressive, then the international community may offering its blessing. Simply there'southward a lot of subjectivity involved.

The 1991 breakdown of the Soviet Union is the greatest single source of current borders disputes, with at least a six territorial conflicts that are still unresolved.

Russian federation has expressed great empathy for indigenous Russians in Crimea who desire to break away from Ukraine. On the other mitt, Russia has fought ii brutal wars in Chechnya to prevent that small territory from separating itself from Russia.

Another recent example is Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. NATO intervened a decade earlier in back up of the Kosovars following widespread abuses carried out under Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

The U.S. and many other countries supported Kosovo's independence, though international backing was far from universal. For instance, Russia has opposed Kosovo's independence and has the power to veto an application for United Nations membership.

Amicable Divorces

The model here is Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution that led to the peaceful creation of the Czech republic and Slovakia.

"When Czechoslovakia split upward, the national governments agreed. This is the kind of breakup you ever desire, but you rarely become," says Stephen Larrabee of the Rand Corp.

In a like vein, Scotland will concord a referendum in September on whether information technology wants to opt for independence after being part of the United Kingdom for more than 3 centuries. The polls suggest most Scots favor continued union.

Notwithstanding, this approach does not guarantee a happy ending. With the help of the United nations and the international community, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war. The hope was that both sides could peacefully become their own way, but the two countries have continued to feud. Southward Sudan appeared on the brink of ceremonious war before a cease-fire was signed in January, just the country remains unstable.

Disputes Spanning Generations

Israel has never had fixed borders since its independence in 1948, and the Palestinians have never had a country at all.

India and Islamic republic of pakistan have been at odds over Kashmir since those two countries gained independence in 1947, fighting wars and posting soldiers on a Himalayan glacier along the Line of Control that separates the two sides.

Perchance the question here is what role the international customs should play in these disputes.

The U.S. and many others have sought to banker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, to no avail. The world has mostly left the Indians and the Pakistanis to their own devices, and the conflict also remains stubbornly unresolved more six decades later.

Greg Myre is the international editor at NPR.org. You tin can follow him on Twitter @gregmyre1

Can National Register Site Boundaries Be Expanded?,

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/15/286803201/what-are-the-rules-for-changing-a-countrys-borders

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