The State, its Boundaries, and Internationalization – Considerations on the Domestic-Foreign and the Private-Public Boundary
In order to challenge the widespread identification of political inter-, trans-, and supranationalization with the disappearance of boundaries, the following heuristic reflections will concentrate on a few selected phe-nomena and changes of boundaries under conditions of increasing and intensified cross-border politics. While concentrating on boundaries that are constitutive with regard to state theory, the focus lies on par-ticular modes of appearance of these boundaries in times of intensified inter-, trans-, and supranational relations. In doing so, boundaries will be understood as social and political phenomena, while at the same time taking their epistemic significance into account. It should be considered if we are really dealing with the dissolving of traditional boundaries in cross-border politics or rather with the volatility of boundaries, i.e. with flexible boundary lines, whereas the boundary’s political and epistemic quality and function are not necessarily modified or weakened.