Enclaves of the World

This is the story of territories in geographical discontinuity to their state of belonging, of enclaves in foreign countries, and of their inhabitants often forgotten by both their authorities and their fellow citizens. The author looks at these geographical oddities, consequences of historical accidents, these geopolitical "in-betweens", through an unprecedented fieldwork. These enclaves, endearing and vulnerable territories, all represent, to varying degrees, territories full of symbols, historical heritage, economic gains or strategic assets, territories with multiple influences. They thus embody the hybridity and complexity of our world.

In political geography, enclaves are a part of the territory of a state located inside another belonging , to a given country but located geographically in another, usually neighbouring, country. An enclave can be separated from its main territory by one or more states. The term exclave is then sometimes used to describe it. This term is also used for enclaves with a seafront. But an enclave can also be considered as such by the country which surrounds it and as an exclave by the country to which it is attached: for example, the German enclave of Busingen-am-Hohrhein is considered by Switzerland as an enclave (in its national territory) and by Germany as an exclave (outside its national territories). These pieces of territory constitute both unknown places, fractures of our globalized world and places cut off from "their" world and their country. The people who live there are cut off from their motherland by foreign countries; they are citizens of a state that is far away.

This book is in line with the previous ones (Walls Between Peoples, 2015, La Documentation francaise; Bridges Between Peoples, 2017, CNRS Editions / Presses des Ponts) focusing on the fractures of the world and its forgotten strategic regions and the trilogy known as "Geopolitics of Borderlands".

This book uses the same configuration: 9 cases of enclaves and a general introduction that will revisit the theory of enclaves and try to find common features that connect that diversity of world's enclaves.
A few books exist on specific enclaves (Kaliningrad, Baarle-Hertog), a few Master's thesis have been written (Temburong, Oecussi), and some theoretical work has been carried out (notably that of Yevgeniy Vinokurov in 2007). But no book deals with...