From the 12th to 15th September, 2012, the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) held its European conference in Lisbon. ABS emerged on the western seaboard of the US and has held annual conferences in that area, but in recent years European border scholars have sought to create a European version, with this year’s conference coming on the back of the one held in Greece the previous year.

With the 100 or so participants headed by the Finns Anssi Paasi and Ilkka Liikanen, and with researchers from Denmark, France and the Netherlands strongly represented, and the likes of David Newman from the Middle Eastern and North Americans such as Emmanuel Brunet Jailly also in attendance, the result was a broader and deeper conference. Being a mere two months before the BRIT XII Conference in Fukuoka and Pusan, the opening address dwelt repeatedly on the importance of extending BRIT into Asia. With the majority of BRIT’s European Executive Committee in attendance at the conference, and researchers scheduled to present in Fukuoka and Pusan not in short supply, this was a good conference with which to build momentum for BRIT in November.

The opening day of the conference saw presentations from PhD candidates, overwhelmingly from Finland and Lisbon, providing them with a great opportunity to receive comments from their more senior colleagues. Following the conference itself on the 13th and 14th, the 15th saw an opportunity, with the support of Lisbon University, for undertaking fieldwork at the border with Spain. A twelve hour tour starting in the early morning, there was a great deal to learn, in particular that despite both being members of the EU there remain border issues between the two states, in particular at Olivenza (the border here has still not been formally recognized by Portugal). The other European participants were themselves unfamiliar with the issue (the photo is taken from the Portuguese side, of the assembled researchers viewing the bridge at the ‘border’ toward Olivenza).

While the only attendee speaking on East Asian issues was myself, about the recent division of islands in the Ussuri River and the border settlement between China and Russia, hearing this paper together with that on Israeli-Palestinian border issues focused the attention of European researchers on the importance of border issues to peace, and appeared to have a considerable impact.

The proposed First ABS World Conference to be held in the summer of 2014 jointly by Finland and Russia will perhaps incorporate the European version, but a number of presentations from Asia, starting with Japan, are eagerly awaited.

(Iwashita Akihiro)