Challenges and geopolitical consequences of border quarantine during epidemics

Document Type : مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

Author

• Afshin Karami

Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/pg.2024.83447.1225

Abstract

Efforts to contain epidemics and find a long-term solution through vaccines have collided with a range of political issues related to health systems, politics, human rights, governance, mobility and borders. Therefore, the emergence of epidemics has provided an opportunity for political geography to follow the geopolitical foundations of health and health systems with a more serious look. Epidemic management is a spatial issue for two reasons: First, disease treatment is always a socio-spatial issue because the authorities either seek to impose quarantine measures or limit disease carriers. Second, the disease is revealed by a set of actors and human and non-human forces that deal with space and place. Therefore, diseases have become part of the geopolitical realm because they reveal the desirability, feasibility, and durability of national, regional, and global governance structures. The concept of quarantine as a type of activity that leads to the division and limitation of geographical space can be one of the most controversial topics in geopolitics. But until now, due to the predominance of the humanist perspective in border studies, it has not been able to attract the attention of researchers in the field of geopolitics. This research is written with the aim of investigating the challenges and geopolitical consequences of border quarantine during epidemics and with a descriptive-analytical method. This study specifically focuses on the corona virus epidemic and the geopolitical and border consequences of quarantine during this epidemic. But at the same time, he is not oblivious to other epidemics and their possible effects and mentions them repeatedly. The results show that the mainstream of border and geopolitical studies should also include insights related to the effects of borders on the distinct challenges that non-human beings may create at the borders.

Keywords

• Border
• Quarantine
• Geopolitics
• Epidemic
• State

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