Cross-Border Cooperation

Cross-border cooperation (CBC) is a response to the challenges that international borders pose to the surrounding areas. It is the process in which neighboring local and regional actors engage in multifaceted cooperation across state borders to find mutually beneficial solutions to common problems that cannot be adequately addressed in a national framework alone. The primary goal is to transcend the barrier function of state borders.

CBC practices first appeared in Europe in the 1960s, and by the 1990s, they had become an integral part of the European Union integration process. Globalization flows have engendered the emergence of such practices in other parts of the world as well, most notably in North America and East Asia. Economically, CBC has the potential to enhance the development of the borderlands by allowing economic actors to take advantage of opportunities situated on both sides of the border. Culturally, CBC can break down negative stereotypes by promoting good neighborly relations. Politically, CBC could enhance the democratic process by bringing decision making closer to the borderland inhabitants. In achieving such objectives, CBC faces the considerable task of developing integrative mindsets among a variety of local actors to allow them to identify shared interests necessary to create common spaces of living.

CBC departs from traditional intergovernmental cooperation, allowing subnational authorities and civil society actors to engage in direct interaction across state borders. Nonetheless, these practices do not entirely bypass the national governments. They tend to be project specific rather than forming a comprehensive territorial strategy for the management of social life in the borderlands. CBC is generally oriented toward building cross-border institutions that can provide enabling frameworks for cooperative actions. The institutionalization of CBC typically assumes the form of multilevel governance networks that can involve local, regional, and national governments, supranational institutions, development agencies, universities, chambers of commerce, and nongovernmental organizations, all interacting in a loosely coupled relationship based on coordination and negotiation rather than top-down subordination.

Cross-border regions, commonly known in Europe as Euroregions, are currently the most common and complex spatial frameworks for CBC. They are territorially delineated regions that straddle state borders, where cooperation can be organized irrespective of state borders, to the benefit of the civil society (Figure 1). They can have governing institutions, such as councils and secretariats, and symbols, such as logos and flags. In practice, the persistence of national particularism among many actors involved in CBC has prevented cross-border regions from becoming meaningfully integrated spaces of living.

CBC processes aimed at cross-border spatial integration are often in a state of tension with the nation-state's sovereignty demands involving a border-containment territorial logic. These conflicting territorial logics often prevent CBC from reaching its full potential. Nonetheless, the overall impact of CBC has been to unsettle the long-established meaning of state borders as ultimate [Page 631]lines of defense and to accommodate increased contact and gateway functions.

Figure 1 Euroregions situated between Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova

Source: Map created by Cristina Scarlat, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas.