On Thu, 28 Nov 2002 20:34:22 +0000, you wrote:

>
>>Was that really an international border or an administrative line.
>
>What's the difference? I would argue that an administrative line becomes an
>international border when it separates two or more entities defined by ISO
>3166-1 as countries or territories.

There is a difference but a subtle one. First I would like to indicate
how I define the various concepts mentioned above. Sovereignty means
ownership of a place. Administration means control or the day-to-day
running of a place. A border indicates a change in Sovereignty and an
Administrative Line indicates a change in control. Almost all the time
these are one in the same thing but there are several cases where they
are different.

1) Leases - Guantanamo/Bikanor/Etc. The US indicates that Gitmo is
part of Cuba not the US. US Courts have no jurisdiction over Gitmo.

2) Occupation - West Bank/Gaza Strip/Western Sahara. While the
occupying powers have control, no one recognises their sovereignty of
the territories.

3) Undefined borders - Most of the borders in the Middle East are not
defined and administrative line have been but in place until border
agreement have been made.

4) By other agreements - Switzerland and Germany made an agreement
where Büsingen was under Swiss administration on a number of areas but
that Germany was the sovereign power over Büsingen.

6) Unknown reasons - Part of Sudan is under Egyptian control and a
second part is under Kenyan control. Also part of Egypt is under
Sudanese control. (Any one have an idea why this occurs?)

-Andrew
--
Andrew T. Patton (andrew@...)
Fairfax, VA, USA
Travelogues and Photos at http://www.AndrewPatton.com